The hearing just ended. The judge still did not say the decision. Before that, Delhi Police under Union Home Minister Amit Shah told reporters that the judge had rejected Mohammad Zuber’s bail plea. The court handed down the same verdict shortly after the controversy over the police chief’s comments. Following the police’s comments and the court’s verdict, many have complained that there is an ‘influential’ addition to Zuber’s case.
The extra activity of the Delhi Police, in this case, has also been questioned. Many complained that there was no activism in the allegations against Nupur Sharma. The Supreme Court also taunted the Delhi Police yesterday. That policy is more ‘active’ than the court in the Zuber case.
Zuber’s lawyer Sautik Banerjee called it scandalous. His statement was, that without waiting for the judge’s verdict, the police announced the verdict on the news!
A four-year-old tweet contains offensive content and it led to the arrest of Zuber, the founder of Alt News on 27th June. The journalist has been in police custody for the last five days. Zuber applied for bail in Delhi’s Patiala House Court. When presented in court yesterday, both parties presented their statements in court. Although the hearing was over, the judge still did not make any decision. Before that, the deputy commissioner of police told reporters that the court had rejected Zuber’s bail. As the controversy escalated, DCP KPS Malhotra said that he heard wrong information from a colleague.
Later, however, when the court’s verdict was announced, it was seen that what Malhotra said, wasn’t wrong and the judge’s verdict matched it exactly. The judge rejected Zuber’s bail application and remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days. And again the question arises, how did the DCP know the decision of the judge before the verdict was announced?
Image Source: https://images.indianexpress.com/2020/06/gavel.jpg
Charges against the reporter
Zuber has been charged under various sections of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act or the FCRA, as well as insulting religious sentiments, criminal conspiracy, and loss of evidence, police told the court yesterday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) may also file a case against Zuber for financial misconduct.
According to the Delhi Police, social media analysis showed that most of the Twitter handle that supported Zuber after his arrest came from Pakistan and various countries in Central Asia (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait).
Analyzing all the transactions that have taken place through the payment gateway in Razorpay, it has been seen that most of the phone numbers and IP addresses are from outside India. These include Bangkok, Manama, North Holland, Singapore, Victoria, New York, England, and Riyadh. Sharjah, Stockholm, Aichi, Abu Dhabi, Kansas, New Jersey, Washington DC, Ontario, California, Texas, Bern, Dubai, Scotland, Central, Western and Eastern Provinces of the United Arab Emirates too.
Pravda Media, the regulator of ALT News, received a total grant of 2,31,933. On June 20th, remarkable, an officer of the IFSO unit of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police lodged a complaint against Zuber.