Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair was on Saturday denied bail by a Delhi court but not before some controversial events transpired before the pronouncement of the order. .Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria had reserved the order at around 1 pm and the order was pronounced after 7 pm. One of the grounds for dismissing Zubair's bail plea was the addition of offences under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 by the Police.“Plea that Zubair’s tweet is of 2018 and from the Hindi film Kiss Se Na Kehna, and therefore no offence under 153A or 295A are made out, is of no assistance to the accused as Section 35 of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act have also been added and investigation is pending,” the order said..Below are the reasons given by the judge for dismissing the plea:On Section 41A noticeZubair had contended that the notice under Section 41A was served half an hour prior to his arrest and compliance with Section 41A was merely on paper.A Section 41A notice is issued on June 24. They then entice me to join investigation (in another case)," Grover said.She was referring to the fact that Zubair was already being probed by Delhi Police in another case in which he had been granted protection by the Delhi High Court, and that he was summoned on the pretext of probe in that case before being arrested in the present FIR.However, the Court said that this issue was raised before the Duty Magistrate on June 27 and the same was declined and Section 41A notice was found to be not defective as accused was not co-operating with the investigation. On mobile phone of Zubair from which he had tweeted being stolenZubair had said that the tweet in question was made from a mobile phone which was stolen in 2021 and the seizure of his present device was, therefore, illogical. “My phone was snatched by someone on a bike. I lodged a complaint in 2021. That was the phone I was using in 2018. This is document is on record. No aspersions can be cast on me for reformatting the phone. The phone they (Police) have taken (now), I was not using in 2018. It was lost," Zubair's lawyer advocate Vrinda Grover said.However, the Court said that "nothing was found on record to show the any mobile phone of the accused was lost, although the said plea has been taken now in the present application.” .On seizure of current mobile phone, laptopOn Zubair's argument that the seizure of his laptop and mobile phone amounted to invasion of his privacy, the Court said that the phone initially seized from the accused did not have any data and pursuant to the disclosure statement of the accused regarding use of mobile and laptop for tweeting, search warrant and police custody remand was granted.On the point of sealing of electronic devices, the court noted that it was not the right stage as the investigation with respect to data and the electronic devices seized during execution of search warrants was being looked into..On the tweeted photo being a screenshot from a movieOne of the main contentions of Zubiar was that the tweet in question was from 2018 and the photograph tweeted out was from a movie 'Kissi se na kehna' which is freely available on public domain.The Court, however, said that the same would be of no assistance to the accused since provisions under FCRA have also been invoked."Even otherwise, at this stage, since the matter is at the initial stage of investigation, this Court shall not pass any orders as to what sections are being made out and what sections are not being made out," the order said..The Court, therefore, ruled that since the matter is at an initial stage of investigation and considering the overall facts and circumstances of the case and nature and gravity of the offences alleged against the accused, no ground for grant of bail is made out..Advocates Vrinda Grover and Soutik Banerjee, represented Zubair. Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Atul Shrivastava represented the Delhi Police..[Read Order]
