[BREAKING] Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair moves Delhi court for bail, hearing on Tuesday

Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who was arrested by the Delhi police in a case of promoting enmity among religious groups, has moved a Delhi court seeking bail..The plea was filed before the Additional Sessions Court through his lawyer Soutik Bannerjee after the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate dismissed his plea for bail and sent him to 14 days of judicial custody on July 2..The case against Zubair was based on a tweet put out by the fact-checker in 2018..Zubair was initially booked for offences under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between religious groups) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).Subsequently, offences under Section 35 of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 and Sections 201 (destruction of evidence) and 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC were added..The case against Zubair was based on a complaint from a Twitter handle called Hanuman Bhakt alleging that Zubair had tweeted a questionable image with the intention to deliberately insult a Hindu God.“Such tweets were getting retweeted 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,” a statement by Delhi Police had said.Zubair's lawyers have maintained that the tweeted image was a screenshot from a 1983 movie 'Kissi se na kehna'. Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police on June 27 and had been remanded to one-day police custody by the duty magistrate.He was then produced before CMM on June 28 and was remanded to further police custody for 4 days.Subsequently, he was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days..The hearing will take place before an Additional Sessions Court on Tuesday. Zubair has also been booked by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police in two separate FIRs. He was booked by Sitapur Police in a case of hurting religious sentiments in which the Supreme Court granted him interim bail on July 8.He was remanded to 14-day judicial custody in another FIR registered in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri district.