Sitapur court refuses bail to Mohammed Zubair in UP Police FIR; remands him to 14-day judicial custody

A local court in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday rejected a bail application filed by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case registered against him by the Uttar Pradesh Police (UP Police) for hurting religious sentiments, and remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days..Zubair has been in judicial custody since July 4..Judge Abhinav Srivastava rejected the bail plea on the ground that there was a possibility of the accused influencing witnesses, or repeating offences. It was noted that the matter was serious in nature and non-bailable.The court, on examination of the material, took note that Zubair had been accused of deliberately spreading hatred in society, causing Muslim disputes, hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus and spreading hatred among people of different sects..The case against Zubair was registered by the UP police for hurting religious sentiments based on a tweet he had put out against Mahant Bajrang Muni, Yati Narsinghanand and Swami Anand Swaroop referring to them as 'hate mongers'.Zubair was booked under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, 2000..Zubair has meanwhile approached the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the FIR against him.On Thursday morning, Zubair's plea seeking quashing of the FIR was mentioned before a vacation bench of the Supreme Court by Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves.The bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari said that only the Chief Justice of India (CJI) could list matters. It, therefore, directed that the case be listed tomorrow subject to clearance by the CJI..He had earlier approached the Allahabad High Court to quash the case but the same was turned down leading to the appeal before the top court.Zubair is already in judicial custody in another case registered by the Delhi Police which has booked him for promoting enmity among religious groups registered. This case was based on another tweet put out by him in 2018.The tweet contained a screenshot from a movie from the 1980s - Kissi Se Na Kehna..He was initially booked by the Delhi Police 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 FCRA and Sections 201 (destruction of evidence) and 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC were added..He was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days in the Delhi Police FIR by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria on July 2..[Read Order]