‘What action have you taken against person who put out offensive tweet against Zubair?’ Delhi HC asks Delhi Police

On January 5, a single judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani had asked the Delhi Police to place the chargesheet in the matter before the court, after the police submitted that it found “no criminality in so far as Zubair is concerned” and have accordingly not included his name in the chargesheet.

On Thursday when the matter was called, Justice Bhambhani asked the Delhi Police, “what did you do about the person who had put out those offensive tweets?”. The court further asked that what did the police do with this (twitter user).

The High Court further queried about the status of the Chhattisgarh case also involving Zubair. Around the same time as the Delhi Police in 2020, the Raipur police had also filed an FIR against Zubair under provisions of the IT Act and the POCSO Act based on complaints from the NCPCR over allegedly “threatening and torturing a girl child through Twitter”.

Justice Bhambhani said, “Somebody starts a storm and you just say no name in the chargesheet…No, I will have to hear the matter…I want to see if things are coming to a logical closure”. In his petition before the Delhi High Court Zubair has said, “The petitioner merely shared the image of the (Twitter user) standing with a minor girl, whose face is pixelated and calling the (Twitter user) out on his foul, shameful and abusive behaviour on social media.”

The High Court asked Zubair’s counsel to verify the status of the FIR registered against him in Chhattisgarh, listing the matter for further consideration on March 13. At the outset, Zubair’s counsel Urvi Mohan had made a statement that her client would withdraw the plea, based on the statement of the Delhi Police that her client’s name does not feature in the chargesheet.

The Indian Express had reported in September 2020 that the complaint sent by NCPCR, which is the basis of the two FIRs in Delhi and Raipur, mentions three Twitter handles, including @zoo_bear, which is run by Mohammed Zubair, fact-checker and co-founder of fact-checking website, AltNews. The other two handles are @de_real_mask and @syedsarwar20. DCP (Cyber Crime, Delhi) Anyesh Roy and Raipur SP Ajay Yadav confirmed that FIRs had been filed. The other two handles had commented on the post, said a Raipur police officer. While one has been deleted, the other is anonymous, The Indian Express had reported.

In September 2020, the Delhi High Court restrained the Delhi Police from taking any coercive action against Zubair. On October 5, 2020 the Chhattisgarh HC granted interim relief to Zubair directing that no coercive steps shall be taken against him till the next date of hearing.

The Delhi Police in its May 14, 2022 status report had said that the tweet made by Zubair does not constitute a cognizable offence. Opposing this, the NCPCR alleged that Delhi Police’s stand is “incorrect and indicates the casual attitude of the police” in this case.

The NCPCR in its affidavit stated that the act of retweeting the picture of a minor girl by Zubair “initiated the indecent and obnoxious” comments against her; it additionally contributed to the disclosure of her identity through her father seriously jeopardising her safety and security. “Retweeting the picture on his Twitter platform exposed the girl to harassment on a big social media platform like Twitter wherein lewd and disgraceful comments were published by Twitter users,” the body has alleged.

The body further alleged that despite knowing that there were several comments made on his post against the girl, Zubair neither tried to delete the tweet nor did he inform the concerned authorities about the users who had made such comments. The body has asked the Delhi High Court to direct the police to conduct a “thorough investigation” in the case and complete the same on priority.