Delhi Police has registered a case against Mohd Zubair, a vocal government critic who is the co-founder of fact-checking website 'Alt News', accusing him of "threatening and torturing a girl child through Twitter", a charge he described as "absolutely frivolous".
The FIR by Delhi Police's Cyber Cell came on Saturday following a complaint filed by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) seeking action against the Zubair under the Information Technology Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
The complaint filed by the NCPCR refers to a photo of a girl and her grandfather posted by Zubair on Twitter during an online interaction with the girl's father. The girl's face was masked in the post but the child rights body claimed that the girl could be identified through her grandfather.
Zubair described the complaint as "absolutely frivolous" and said that he would respond legally. Another Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha said an attempt has been to "hound" Zubair through the "misuse of legal apparatus".
"Alt News stands by Mohd Zubair. Zubair has been in the forefront of fighting fake narratives, and his work hurts those who have weaponised misinformation to subvert the Indian democracy," Sinha said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Alt News is a fake news busting website and its posts had angered the right wing Hindutva brigade for exposing inconsistencies in their narrative. Both Zubair and Sinha are also active on social media engaging with supporters as well as detractors.
The NCPCR had taken cognizance of a complaint received under section 13 (1) and (k) of CPCR Act, 2005, which referred to the picture of the minor girl that has been posted on social media with "indecent and disgraceful" comments, NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo said.
"You look into the matter and take prompt action in respect to the Twitter handle and posts harassing, threatening and stalking the minor girl. Further, you were also requested to ensure the safety of the girl child and initiate appropriate action against the alleged perpetrators," Kanoongo said in his letter.
Kanoongo sought action against "online threats and repeated incidents of stalking of a minor girl on Twitter by Zubair". Kanoongo has also written to Twitter seeking action.
On Saturday, he tweeted, "According to the ATR received in @NCPCR_ ,an FIR has been lodged against the alleged persons for threatening and torturing a girl child on @Twitter. As per the request made by @TwitterIndia an additional time of 10 days has been provided to them to provide relevant information."