New Delhi: The Chhattisgarh high court has granted Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair interim protection from arrest on Monday, saying that no coercive action should be taken against him in the FIR lodged over a tweet.
A bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Agarwal is hearing the case Zubair has filed asking for the FIR to be quashed. The judge also issued notices to the complainant, Jagdish Singh, and the Chhattisgarh government.
Last month, the Delhi high court too had asked the police not to take coercive action against Zubair on a similar case over the same tweet, in which the complainant is the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights.
FIRs against Zubair had been filed by the Delhi and Raipur police under sections of the IT Act and the POCSO Act for allegedly “harassing and torturing” a minor girl on social media.
On August 6, Zubair while responding to online abuse from Twitter user Jagdish Singh (@JSINGH2252), shared Singh’s display picture with a little girl (blurring her face) and wrote, “Hello Jagdish Singh. Does your cute grand daughter know about your part time job of abusing people on social media? I suggest you to change your profile pic.”
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The two FIRs have been filed under section 509B (sexual harassment by electronic mode) of the Indian Penal Code, section 12 (punishment for committing sexual harassment upon a child) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Zubair, argued that the FIR was an abuse of the process of law and that the tweet cannot attract any of the offences alleged, LiveLaw reported. The allegations, even if admitted to be true, do no make out any offences under the IPC, POCSO or the IT Act, his lawyers said.
Zubair has called the FIRs frivolous, and Alt News has stood by him. Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha told The Wire earlier that Zubair was being targeted for the work their organisation does. “Even though there are other bodies doing similar work, I believe Alt News‘ work stands out because of how we have shown how elected ministers and people from the ruling party spread misinformation through their social media accounts to create a narrative,” Sinha had said.