Delhi Arrests Alt News Co-Founder Mohammed Zubair; Had Been First to Report Nupur Sharma’s Prophet Comments
NEW DELHI (IANS) – Fact-checking website, Alt news’ co-founder Mohammed Zubair was arrested here on June 27 for allegedly hurting sentiments of a particular religious community, the police said.
The police had registered a case after getting a complaint from a Twitter handle, where it was alleged that Zubair had tweeted a questionable image with a purpose to deliberately hurting religious sentiments.
“Such tweets were getting re-tweeted and it appeared that there is a brigade of social media entities, who indulge in insult mongering thereby leading to a possible ramification on communal harmony and is overall against the maintenance of public tranquility,” Deputy Commissioner of Police KPS Malhotra said.
Zubair joined the investigation in a case that was registered at the Special Cell police station.
During the probe, the police had given a status report, wherein the tweet by Mohammad Zubair was not found objectionable even though subsequent tweets after his tweet led to a series of questionable and derogatory tweets.
“In the investigation of this case, he had been earlier examined and the investigation is on the verge of conclusion,” the police officer said.
However, earlier this month the police was alerted by a Twitter handle that Mohammad Zubair had earlier made an objectionable tweet and his followers on social media entities had amplified and created a series of debates and hate mongering in the thread.
Pertinent to mention here that Zubair was the first person to share suspended Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nupur Sharma’s alleged remarks against Prophet Muhammad during a TV debate.
The controversial statement made by Nupur Sharma set off an international furor.
Several Muslim nations, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Indonesia and Iran, as well as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have officially protested their statements and demanded an apology.
However, soon after her comments, Sharma was targeted on social media and received thousands of death threats following which the police provided a security cover to her.
