Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair files writ petition challenging FIR by Ghaziabad Police

Prayagraj: A writ petition has been filed before the Allahabad High court by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, challenging an FIR registered against him by the Ghaziabad Police.

In the FIR lodged last month, the Ghaziabad Police accused Zubair of promoting enmity between religious groups following a complaint by an associate of controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand.

A complaint lodged by one Udita Tyagi, general secretary of the Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust, has alleged that Zubair posted a video clip of an old programme of Narsinghanand on October 3, 2024 with the intent to provoke violence by Muslims against him.

The complaint further alleged that Zubair posted edited clips of the priest on X (formerly Twitter) containing Narsinghanand's alleged incendiary remarks on Prophet Muhammad to incite radical sentiments against the controversial priest. In his X Post, he called the alleged speech of Narsinghanand 'derogatory'.

Zubair has been booked 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).

In the writ petition filed before the court, Zubair has requested to quash the FIR and protection from coercive action. In his plea, he stated that his X post does not call for violence against Yati. 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.

The petition also states that at the time of making the derogatory remarks against Prophet, Narsinghanand was on bail in another hate speech case where his bail condition stipulated that he would not make any statements which promote communal disharmony.

The matter is likely to come up for a hearing before a division bench of this court in the next week.

A PIL is already pending before the court to restrain Narsinghanand from raising questions against Prophet Mohammad and the Quran.