[Mohammed Zubair bail] '+92' in Excel sheet listing contributions to AltNews not Pakistan code: Counsel to Court

A Delhi Court on Thursday reserved orders in the bail application filed by AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who was booked for promoting enmity among religious groups through his tweets and for violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA)..Counsel for Zubair told the Court that the +92 found in the Excel sheet of contributions to the news platform did not signify a Pakistan code, but was a formula for computation..Advocate Vrinda Grover attempted to dispel the prosecution's case against Zubair that he had violated provisions of the FCRA by receiving foreign contributions from countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia..After hearing arguments from both sides, Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala reserved orders and will pronounce the same on Friday, July 15..At the outset of today's hearing, the Court asked Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Atul Shrivastava,"Have you recorded the statement of the person? Abhi tak aapne statement hee nahi likhi hai? (you still haven't taken the statement) How many statements have you recorded? How many persons felt offended by this?"When Shrivastava attempted to point out the tweets, the Court said,"You can't go by tweets. You have to go by CrPC. There is a procedure. You have to record statements of people.".During the course of her arguments, Grover sought to disprove the case registered against Zubair under the FCRA."Section 35 is a blanket penal provision and says that for any violation of any provision, punishment is 5 years. I'm making a self declaration that Pravda Media (under which AltNews is registered) is registered as a company. I don't have FCRA and that's why we can't have foreign contribution. There is a disclaimer that we accept only Indian money."She placed on record statements from the CEO of payments platform Razorpay that only contributions from Indians were received..On the +92 code found in the Excel sheet of contributions to the news outlet, Grover said,"+92 is there in the Excel sheet from where they have shown the contributions. They say it is from Pakistan. It's a formula for computation in Excel and not the code."Reiterating that AltNews has not received any foreign contribution in either Indian or foreign currency, Grover pointed out,"If I am an Indian citizen with an Indian bank account and living abroad, I may have a different IP address. I may be on deputation. Indian engineers are in demand everywhere. I may be on deputation in Nokia, Google. There may be IP address of foreign. If you're reading that, then you're misreading. That's wrong.".Grover went on to discuss the offence related to hurting of religious sentiments for a tweet she said was four years old."Somebody feeling hurt for a 4-year-old tweet after digging it out doesn't constitute an offence."She once again pointed out that the tweet in question was a still from a 1983 film called 'Kissi Se Na Kehna'. The scene from the movie in question was played in court.She then took the Court through Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, which penalises promoting enmity between different religious groups, saying,"First ingredient to be fulfilled (promoting enmity between groups allegation) is two communities. Hanuman ji is the Hindu deity. Where is the other community? Not even a prima facie case made out against me.".In his rebuttal, SPP Shrivastava claimed that AltNews received payments from many different places."How will it benefit a foreign national?" the Court asked at this point."That's how they're being lured. Cleverly they are doing all this," the SPP replied."There are other movies also. There is a mens rea, guilty mind that you have taken an image and put it on social media... Why have you chosen Hanumanji?" he went on to argue.Referring to the FCRA case, he highlighted that ₹56 lakh came to Zubair's account through Razorpay."We are doing investigation at a good pace without any bias. We have contacted the bank also and one person residing in Saudi Arabia for the past 20-22 years," he said..Countering Grover's submission that Zubair was just joking through the tweet, the SPP said,"It is not as simple as my friend put it. It's a not joke. It's a planned thing. And you have added such things to attract such types of people. This is not the only tweet. There are other tweets also as IO has pointed out."The Court then asked,"Why do you want him in custody?"Shrivastava replied,"There is someone "gumnaam" (anonymous) from whom he has accepted money. He will remain gumnaam.".The Court then reserved orders and said that they would be pronounced on Friday, July 15..Zubair moved the Court for bail after the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate dismissed his plea and sent him to 14 days of judicial custody on July 2.He 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. His lawyers have maintained that the tweeted image was a screenshot from the 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 the CMM on June 28 and remanded to further police custody for 4 days. Subsequently, he was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.He has also been booked by the Uttar Pradesh 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.

[Mohammed Zubair bail] '+92' in Excel sheet listing contributions to AltNews not Pakistan code: Counsel to Court

Aamir Khan

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