Allahabad High Court reserves verdict on Mohammed Zubair plea to quash FIR for tweet against Yati Narsinghanand

The Allahabad High Court on Monday reserved its judgment in a plea by Alt News journalist and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair seeking quashing of the first information report (FIR) registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police for criticising the speech delivered by Ghaziabad Dasna Devi Temple priest Yati Narsinghanand..The State argued that FIR cannot be quashed in part and if any of the cognizable offence is made out, the Court cannot entertain the petition.After hearing the parties, a Bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Yogendra Kumar Srivastava reserved its verdict while also extending the interim protection from arrest granted to Zubair in December 2024. .Zubair stands accused of endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) after he put out a tweet on X saying that a speech delivered by Yati Narsinghanand was "derogatory and hateful".On September 29, Narsinghanand, who has been charged with hate speech on previous occasions, delivered a public speech in which he allegedly made remarks against Prophet Muhammad. Several first information reports (FIRs) were then registered against Narsinghanand in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana for inciting communal hatred and hurting religious sentiments. His aides claimed that the was taken away by the cops..Subsequently, there were protests at the Dasna Devi Temple.Meanwhile, Zubair posted a tweet on X calling the speech "derogatory and hateful".A case was then lodged against Zubair on a complaint filed by Udita Tyagi, General Secretary of the Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Foundation.Tyagi alleged that on October 3, Zubair shared an old video clip of Narsinghanand with the intent to incite violence against him.A complaint was lodged by Tyagi blaming Zubair, Arshad Madani and Asaduddin Owaisi for violent protests at Dasna Devi Mandi.The Ghaziabad Police then charged Zubair under Sections 196 (promoting enmity on religious grounds), 228 (fabricating false evidence), 299 (outraging religious feelings by insulting religion or religious beliefs), 356(3) (defamation), and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the BNS..Subsequently, the offence under Section 152 of BNS was also added.Zubair then moved the High Court seeking quashing of the FIR and also for protection from arrest.In his plea, Zubair stated that he had put the post on X to highlight Yati Narsinghanand's repeated communal remarks and derogatory comments about women and senior politicians.The FIR against him is a malicious attempt to prevent him from exposing Narsinghanand's criminal activities, Zubair claimed..[Read Order]