Senior leaders from the opposition, including Rahul Gandhi, have recently came upfront and condemned the vehement arrest of Alt News co-founder and journalist Mohammed Zubair. He was arrested on Monday with allegations of actively hurting religious sentiments of people under the religious exploitative sections of India Penal Code (IPC).
Raising a voice against police brutality, Rahul Gandhi wrote through his official twitter account, “Every person exposing BJP’s hate, bigotry and lies is a threat to them. Arresting one voice of truth will only give rise to a thousand more. Truth ALWAYS triumphs over tyranny. #DaroMat.”
According to reports, Mohammed Zubair has been arrested on the charges of promoting “highly provocative” religious tweets and opinions. The police have booked him under section 153 for deliberately provoking the mass on grounds of religious sentiments with sole intention of causing a riot, and 295A for outraging the religious sentiments of the common people. Granting special four-day remand, the court has appointed Delhi Police’s special cell for the case.
Also Read: Gujarat college principal urges students to join BJP, resigns after firm retaliation
Taking the matte to Twitter, Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) wrote, ““@DelhiPolice does nothing about anti-Muslim genocidal slogans, but acts swiftly against “crime” of reporting hate speech & countering misinformation.”
Expressing similar views, Derek O’Brien, a senior MP from Trinamool Congress tweeted, “Strongly condemn the arrest of one of the world’s finest journalists @zoo_bear who exposes the BJP’s #FakeNews factory every single day. PM @narendramodi and @AmitShah for all the power you wield, you are essentially COWARDS.”
Another MP from Rashtriya Janata Dal condemned the arrest and wrote “Making hate speech is no crime but reporting/exposing such speeches are criminal activities and that’s why @zoo_bear has been arrested. And irony dies hundred deaths.. The great LEADER invokes #Emergency in the land of #ThirdReich & allows dissent in any form to be killed at home.”
Also Read: India and UK to conduct 5th round of talks for FTA deal in July
Pratik Sinha, the co-founder of Alt News has said that Mohammed Zubair’s arrest is related to a 2020 case for which he had already sought protection from the High Court. However, KPS Malhotra, the DCP Special Cell told the media that despite the court order, Delhi Police had arrested him “after having sufficient evidence on record.”
