Delhi court may hear Alt News co-founder Zubair's bail plea on Tuesday

A Delhi court is likely to hear on Tuesday Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair's plea seeking bail in a case related to an objectionable tweet he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity.

Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala will hear Zubair's application filed on Monday against the order of a magisterial court which on July 2 dismissed his bail plea and sent him to 14-day judicial custody (JC) in the case.

The magisterial court had cited the nature and gravity of the offences against Zubair and observed that the matter was at the initial stage of the investigation.

The court had sent him to JC after his five-day custodial interrogation.

In its order, the court had noted the submission of the public prosecutor that the investigation was at the initial stage and that there was every likelihood that police custody (PC) remand of the accused would be required.

The judge also considered the addition of new sections during the course of the investigation while rejecting the bail application.

As regards the plea that the alleged tweet of the accused for which accused has been arrested is of the year 2018 and part of Hindi movie 'Kissi Se Na Kehna' and so offences under sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) IPC are not made out, are of no assistance to the accused as Section 35 (Punishment for contravention of any provision of the) FC(R) Act have also been added and investigation qua it is also pending, the court had said.

Even otherwise, at this stage, since the matter is at the initial stage of the investigation, this court shall not pass any orders as to what sections are being made out and what sections are not being made out, the judge had added.