The Allahabad High Court has refused to quash the First Information Report (FIR) filed against Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of fact-checking platform Alt News, over his social media posts highlighting hate speeches allegedly made by Hindutva figure Yati Narsinghanand, reported the Maktoob Media.
A division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Dr. Yogendra Kumar Srivastava passed the order on Thursday, emphasizing the need for a fair investigation. While the FIR remains intact, the court granted Zubair interim protection from arrest and prohibited him from leaving the country while the investigation is ongoing.
The FIR was registered by Ghaziabad Police in October 2024 based on a complaint filed by Udita Tyagi, an associate of Narsinghanand. Zubair was accused of promoting enmity between religious groups through his posts on platform X , especially a thread posted on October 3, 2024, containing video clips of Narsinghanand’s provocative speeches targeting Muslims.
The charges were later expanded to include Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which pertains to acts that threaten the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India. Tyagi alleged that Zubair’s posts were aimed at inciting Muslim violence and claimed they led to unrest outside the Dasna Devi Mandir in Ghaziabad.
The Uttar Pradesh government defended the FIR, stating that Zubair’s posts spread a divisive narrative and inflamed tensions by allegedly sharing “selectively edited” and “half-baked” content. The state argued that the timing of his posts was designed to provoke unrest.
Zubair, however, maintained that his posts were part of his journalistic responsibility to document and expose hate speech, and called for police accountability. His legal team stressed that many media houses and social media users had similarly reported on Narsinghanand’s speeches and insisted that Zubair’s actions were protected by his right to free speech under the Constitution.
Though the court declined to dismiss the FIR, it ensured Zubair would not face immediate arrest, balancing legal scrutiny with protection of individual rights.
