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Allahabad High Court Extends Stay On Arrest Of Mohammed Zubair Till January 16 In Yati Narsinghanand 'X' Post Case
LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK
6 Jan 2025 2:19 PM IST
Today, the Allahabad High Court extended the stay on the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair until January 16. The relief was extended as the Court granted Zubair 10 days to file a rejoinder in response to the counter filed by the State Government concerning an FIR lodged against him over his post on 'X' (formerly Twitter) regarding an alleged inflammatory speech by Yati...
Today, the Allahabad High Court extended the stay on the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair until January 16. The relief was extended as the Court granted Zubair 10 days to file a rejoinder in response to the counter filed by the State Government concerning an FIR lodged against him over his post on 'X' (formerly Twitter) regarding an alleged inflammatory speech by Yati Narsinghanand.
A bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Yogendra Kumar Srivastava passed this order while hearing Zubair's plea challenging the FIR. Earlier on December 20th, the HC, while orally observing that he is not a dreaded criminal, stayed his arrest till January 6.
In its 6-page order, the Court had tentatively said that from the reading of the FIR, an offence under Section 196 BNS is made out; however, whether Section 152 BNS is made out against him or not is to be seen.
For the uninitiated, Zubair is facing an FIR lodged by the Ghaziabad Police in October 2024, accusing him of promoting enmity among religious groups following a complaint by an associate of controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand.
Zubair had allegedly posted a thread of videos on October 3. The first tweet contained a video showing Yati Narsinghanand, the priest of Dasna Devi Temple, making alleged inflammatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad. He also tagged UP police, asking what actions had been taken against Yati. In his X Post, he called the alleged speech of Narsinghanand 'derogatory'.
Pursuant to this, Dr Udita Tyagi, general secretary of the Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust, lodged an FIR against Zubuiar claiming that he had posted old and edited clips of the priest on X (formerly Twitter), containing Narsinghanand's alleged incendiary remarks on Prophet Muhammad, to incite radical sentiments against the controversial priest.
Zubai was booked under sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 228 (fabricating false evidence), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 356(3) (defamation) and 351(2) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Challenging the FIR, Zubair moved the HC, contending that his X post does not call for violence against Yati. He had merely alerted the police authorities about Narsinghanand's actions. He sought action as per law, and this could not amount to promoting disharmony or ill-will between two classes of people.
During the previous hearing, which lasted for around 4 hours, the Uttar Pradesh government had submitted before the High Court that a series of X posts by Zubair on Yati Narsinghanand's alleged speech contained half-baked information and they damaged and threatened India's sovereignty and integrity.
However, it is the case of Zubair that he was exercising his freedom of speech by referring to the alleged controversial speech of Yati Narsinghanand and highlighting his conduct not just him but many new articles and social media accounts posted about the same issue, and Zubair had not said anything different.
Detailed coverage of the previous hearings in the matter :
Mohd Zubair's 'X' Posts With Half-Baked Info Threatened India's Sovereignty, Promoted 'Feeling Of Separatist Activity': UP Govt To Allahabad HC. An 'X' thread of the hearing can be read here
