UP Police forms Special Investigation Team to probe cases against Mohammed Zubair

The Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police has set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe cases against Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in the State, NDTV reported..There are at least two cases pending against Zubair in Uttar Pradesh - one in Sitapur and the other in Lakhimpur Kheri. Zubair has received interim bail from the Supreme Court in the case against him in Sitapur. .The case against Zubair in Sitapur was registered for hurting religious sentiments after he had put out a tweet against Mahant Bajrang Muni, Yati Narsinghanand and Swami Anand Swaroop referring to them as 'hate mongers'..The Lakhimpur Kheri case was registered last year in September, 2021, under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code [promoting enmity between different groups], on a complaint by one Ashish Kumar Katiyar, a journalist working at Sudarshan TV.The complainant had taken objection to a tweet posted by Zubair in May 2021. In the tweet, Zubair had said that a report carried on the said news channel, which super-imposed an image of a famous Medina mosque on an image of the Gaza strip, incorrectly showed that the said mosque was destroyed in Israeli air-strikes.In the First Information Report (FIR), the complainant had claimed that Zubair was inciting Muslims against the news channel by posting the tweet. Twitter is also arraigned as an accused in the case for failing to take down the said tweet.A local court had remanded Zubair to judicial custody for 14 days in that matter yesterday..Zubair is also accused in a third case albeit in Delhi. The Delhi police case against Zubair was based on a tweet put out by the fact-checker in 2018 containing a screenshot of a 1983 Bollywood movie, Kissi se na kehna.Zubair is in judicial custody in relation to the Delhi Police FIR and his bail plea in that case is pending before Additional Sessions Judge.It is slated to be heard on July 14.