[BREAKING] Patiala House court grants bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in Delhi Police FIR

A Delhi Court on Friday granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for promoting enmity among religious groups through his tweets and for violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA)..Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala pronounced the order. Bail was granted subject to him furnishing a personal bond of ₹50,000 and one surety of the same amount. The Court also said ordered that Zubair cannot leave India without the Court's permission.Further, the Court directed that the accused shall not repeat the offence and shall ensure that his tweet or re-tweet or any material on social media is not even touching boundaries of the offences punishable under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code.The Court had on Thursday reserved its verdict on the bail plea after hearing Zubair's counsel Vrinda Grover and Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava. .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 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 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 has also been booked by the Uttar Pradesh Police in six 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.The Uttar Pradesh government had also formed a Special Investigation Team to investigate the six cases.Zubair meanwhile has approached the Supreme Court seeking to quash the six FIRs.