Alt News Co-founder Mohammad Zubair was arrested for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of the Hindu community through the tweet. Zubair is being questioned about the 2018 tweet which is a photo of a hotel with a board reading ‘honeymoon’ hotel repainted into Hanuman hotel. The photo is a still from a 1983 movie.
Credits: Business Standard
The anonymous Twitter handle that went by the user name ‘Hanuman Bhakt’ had posted a quote-tweet on June 19, saying Zubair should be arrested for insulting a god. While the Twitter account had only 1 tweet and 1 follower on the day of the arrest, the account soon garnered 1,200 followers.
However, the account no longer exists. A senior police officer, said, “We have come to know that the person deleted his account. However, that doesn’t affect our investigation… We are trying to trace the man and will ask him about the complaint. He may have deleted the account because he got scared.”
Credits: Scroll
Meanwhile, a four-member team of the Delhi Police on Thursday reached the Alt News co-founder’s Bengaluru residence as part of the investigation. “Our team members are there to collect electronic evidence in relation to the case. This includes his mobile phone or the laptop that he must have used to post the tweet in question,” an investigating officer said.
On Wednesday, the police had asked several banks to reveal the account details of Mr. Zubair along with a record of his financial transactions. The Delhi Police said that they have evidence that in the last three months, Zubair received rupees 50 lakh in his bank account.
The officer also said that the mobile phone used by the co-founder of the fact-checking website has been formatted and does not have information related to the case.
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair arrested by Delhi police under sections 153/295 IPC. pic.twitter.com/oI9OqLA56X
— ANI (@ANI) June 27, 2022
The police said that Zubair stated he lost the phone which was allegedly used in posting the objectionable tweet. Zubair has been booked under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 295A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code.
References: Oulook, Indian Express,Times of India
Featured Image Source: OpIndia
