The Delhi Police has told the Delhi High Court that a tweet made by AltNews founder Mohammad Zubair “does not constitute any cognizable offence”.
The police in August 2020 had registered a case against Zubair in connection with the tweet on the complaint made by NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo. The complaint had referred to a tweet shared by Zubair, which had the photo of a minor girl, with her face blurred out, during an online spat with her relative, the Twitter user in question.
The court was hearing a petition seeking quashing of the FIR and a stay on any coercive action by Delhi Police against him. On May 17, the court said that the interim protection will continue and listed the petition for hearing on August 8.
Earlier, on September 9, 2020, the court had restrained police from taking any coercive action against him.
Stating that further investigation in the case is being conducted on priority, the police has told the court one of the followers of Zubair on Twitter had posted “offensive remarks” on his tweet while addressing the minor girl’s relative.
Zubair has told the court that he has more than 4 lakh followers on Twitter and does not know most of them including the user who made the alleged offensive tweet. Zubair has also told the police that he has lost the mobile phone which was used to post the tweet in question and that he has lodged a complaint in this regard with police in Karnataka.–(The Indian Express)
