The Allahabad High Court on Friday issued an order staying the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt News, until January 6, in connection with an FIR accusing him of promoting religious animosity.
The court also imposed a travel ban, directing Zubair not to leave the country during this period.
The FIR, filed last month, followed a complaint from Udita Tyagi, the general secretary of the Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust, associated with the controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand. Tyagi alleged that Zubair shared a video from an old program of Narsinghanand on October 3 with the intent to incite violence by Muslims against the priest.
The complaint further accused Zubair of posting edited clips of Narsinghanand’s provocative remarks on Prophet Muhammad on X (formerly Twitter), allegedly aiming to stir up radical sentiments.
In its hearing, the bench, consisting of Justices Siddhartha Varma and Nalin Kumar Srivastava, remarked, “We are tentatively of the view that even though the FIR suggests that an offence under section 196 of the BNS Act could be made out, the issue of whether the allegations meet the criteria for section 152 BNS, which involves actions that could provoke rebellion or separatist sentiments, needs further examination.”
The bench gave the state 3 weeks to submit a detailed counter affidavit as the parties had yet to exchange affidavits.
The charges in the FIR include sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups), 228 (fabricating false evidence), 299 (malicious acts intending to outrage religious feelings), 356(3) (defamation), and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
While considering Zubair’s previous legal history, including a Supreme Court order in July 2022 where he was granted bail in several other cases, the bench decided that Zubair would not be arrested until the next hearing, provided he cooperates with the investigation.
Additionally, the court ordered that Zubair surrender his passport to the Ghaziabad Commissioner of Police to ensure he does not travel abroad.
Zubair approached the high court to quash the FIR and sought protection from any coercive measures. In his petition, he argued that his post was merely an effort to alert the authorities about Narsinghanand’s controversial actions and did not incite violence. He also contested the defamation charge, asserting that sharing publicly available videos could not be considered defamatory.
