Allahabad HC Refuses To Quash FIR Against Alt News' Mohd. Zubair Over His Tweet Allegedly Calling 3 Hindu Seers 'Hate Mongers'

The Allahabad High Court recently dismissed a petition moved by the Co-Founder of Alt News, Mohammed Zubair challenging an FIR registered against him earlier this month for a tweet in which he allegedly called 3 Hindu seers- Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop as 'Hate mongers'

It may be noted that Zubair was booked by the Uttar Pradesh Police earlier this month under sections 295-A of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Seeking to quash the FIR, Zubair had moved the High Court claiming that in his tweet, he had not insulted or attempted to insult a religious belief of a class. It was also submitted by him that the F.I.R. had been lodged against him just for harassment with oblique motive, hence it was liable to be quashed.

However, the Bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I dismissed his plea as it noted that the entire matter is only at a premature stage and the investigation is not yet proceeded except for some preliminary effort taken on the date of the registration of the case.

"The evidence has to be gathered after a thorough investigation and placed before the Court concerned on the basis of which alone the Court concerned can come to a conclusion one way or the other on the allegations levelled by the petitioner. If the allegations are bereft of truth and made maliciously, the investigation will say so," the Court stressed. 

The bench also opined that a perusal of the record of the case makes out a prima facie case at the instant stage and there appears to be sufficient ground for investigation in the case.

It may further be noted that the FIR against Zubair had been lodged by Bhagwan Sharan, the Sitapur district head of the Hindutva organization Rashtriya Hindu Sher Sena alleging that his religious sentiments had been hurt by Zubair's tweet.

It was alleged by him in the FIR that on 27.05.2022, he saw a tweet posted by the petitioner on his social media handle "twitter" on which, he used hate offensive term "hate mongers" against the manager of revered religious place Badi Sanghat, P.S. Khairabad and National Patron of National Hindu Sher Sena, Mahant Bajrang Muni Ji.

It was also alleged that Zubair had also insulted Hindu Yati Narasimha Nar Saraswati and Swami Anand Swaroop on his Twitter account.

Case title - Mohammed Zubair v. State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy./Addl Chief Secy. (Home), Lko. And Others

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (AB) 291

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