Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of ALT News, was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Wednesday in all six of the charges that had been brought against him in Uttar Pradesh for hurting religious sentiments through tweets.
The Delhi Police’s Special Cell will now handle all the cases against Zubair that result from his tweets, per the court’s direction.
According to Indian Express, the Supreme Court had on Monday ordered the Uttar Pradesh government not to take any “precipitative” action against Zubair until the next hearing. The court described it as a “vicious cycle” where Zubair is remanded in a new case as soon as he receives bail in an old one.
Zubair’s lawyer, Vrinda Grover, had pleaded with the court for interim relief while a Hathras court was about to rule on the Uttar Pradesh Police’s request for Zubair to be held in custody for 14 days. Zubair was returned to Delhi’s Tihar Jail after receiving a 14-day judicial detention order from the Hathras court on July 15.
On Monday, Grover raised the matter twice for an urgent hearing: once before the bench headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and once before the bench headed by Justice Chandrachud. The bench of Justices Chandrachud and A. S. Bopanna decided to hear the case on July 20 while still providing interim relief.
The Chenab Times News Desk