India News | Allahabad HC Stays Arrest of Fact Checker Mohammad Zubair

Prayagraj, Dec 20 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court on Friday stayed the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in relation to an FIR accusing him of promoting enmity among religious groups following a complaint by an associate of controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand.

The order was passed by a bench of justices Siddhartha Varma and Nalin Kumar Srivastava.

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In her complaint, general secretary of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust Udita Tyagi claimed Zubair posted a video clip of an old programme of Narsinghanand on October 3 with the intent to provoke violence by Muslims against him.

It was further alleged that Zubair posted edited clips of the priest on X, containing Narsinghanand's alleged incendiary remarks on Prophet Muhammad to incite radical sentiments against the controversial priest.

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In his X post, Zubair called the alleged speech of Narsinghanand 'derogatory'.

The FIR was lodged by Ghaziabad police last month under sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 228 (fabricating false evidence), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 356(3) (defamation) and 351(2) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Zubair had moved the high court, requesting quashing the FIR and protection from coercive action. In his plea, he stated that his post did not call for violence against Narsinghanand.

Rather, he had merely alerted the police authorities about Narsinghanand's actions and sought action according to law, and this could not amount to promoting disharmony or ill-will between two classes of people.

In addition to it, he also challenged the invocation of the defamation provision under the BNS on the grounds that seeking action against Narsinghanand by sharing his own videos which are already in public domain, cannot amount to defamation.

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