I don’t post content to gain popularity, Mohammed Zubair tells Delhi HC countering police’s status report

The Delhi Police had filed a status report on September 14 stating that the 2018 Twitter post made by Zubair containing pictures and words allegedly against a particular religious community was deliberate and "highly provocative", enough to incite feelings of hatred among people and "detrimental for maintenance of public tranquillity in the society”.

Zubair further alleged that the search at his residence was carried out with “malafide reasons". (File)

AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair has informed the Delhi High Court that he did not make any “disclosure statement” to the Special Cell of the Delhi Police while in custody or at any time during the investigation on the alleged use of his laptop and mobile in a 2018 tweet case.

The Delhi Police had filed a status report on September 14 stating that the 2018 Twitter post made by Zubair containing pictures and words allegedly against a particular religious community was deliberate and “highly provocative”, enough to incite feelings of hatred among people and “detrimental for maintenance of public tranquillity in the society”.

The Special Cell, which was directed to file a status report by the Delhi High Court, said: “On 27.06.2022, Mohammed Zubair joined investigation and admitted that he had posted the above-mentioned post related to Hanuman-Honeymoon hotel. But despite detailed interrogation, he tried to mislead investigation and provided different answers to the same question on repeated queries. Finally, he disclosed that the laptop and mobile phone used by him for posting the above content is at his residence in Bangalore, and he can get the same recovered,” the report states.

According to police, Zubair disclosed that to “gain popularity, he posts content that triggers religious sentiment and he remains trending in news/ social media”.

Countering police’s stand, Zubair said he did not make any such disclosure as the tweet in question was made in 2018, and he “clearly and specifically” told the police/investigating officer that he no longer had the mobile phone since it had been lost.

Zubair further alleged that the search at his residence was carried out with “malafide reasons”. He said that the alleged disclosures reported in the police’s status report are false, wrong and concocted.

“I am a fact checker and I post content on social media debunking fake news, misinformation and disinformation of all kinds and my work is not limited to any particular kind of posts, nor do I post content for popularity or any other material gain,” he told the court.

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He submitted that he has not made any such disclosures as mentioned in the status report and all consequent steps premised on the purported disclosures including the search and seizure are “also inadmissible in evidence being without the authority of law”.

The matter was listed for hearing today before a single judge bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav who granted time to Delhi Police to file a response to Zubair’s affidavit and listed the matter on March 9.