New Delhi Police, Indiaarrested a Muslim journalist named Mohammed Zubair for allegedly insulting his beliefs Hindu.
Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Cybercrime Unit KPS Malhotra said the founding journalist of fact-checking website Alt News was arrested on Monday (6/27). He was detained one night.
Malhotra said Zubair was arrested for violating two articles of the Indian Penal Code which govern religious harmony.
CNN reported that the arrest was related to the alleged religious insult Zubair allegedly committed on Twitter in 2018. In that tweet, Zubair associated the name of one of the hotels with a Hindu god.
Zubair was interrogated in 2020. But after that, Zubair was granted protection from arrest from Delhi High Court.
The author of the complaint considers that the authorities have failed to carry out the investigation procedures.
Zubair’s lawyer, Kawalpreet Kaur, said his client was later summoned again to investigate the matter.
During the interrogation process, the police even detained Zubair in another case.
Meanwhile, Malhotra did not respond to questions. CNN regarding Zubair’s arrest procedure.
Zubair himself often criticizes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as India’s ruling party, Bharatiya Janata (BJP).
He also accused the BJP of using colonial-era laws to suppress any form of criticism and support private censorship.
In some recent posts by Zubair, he claims that Hindu extremists are calling for hate speech against Islam.
On the other hand, Zubair’s arrest has also angered politicians, journalists and the media. The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged Indian authorities to release Zubair immediately and unconditionally.
Meanwhile, an opposition Congress Party MP, Shashi Tharoor, called the arrest a “violation of the truth”.
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