After Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair was on Monday arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said this was an "assault on truth".
Taking to Twitter, the Thiruvanthapuram MP wrote, "India’s few fact-checking services, especially @AltNews, perform a vital service in our post-truth political environment, rife with disinformation. They debunk falsehoods whoever perpetrates them. To arrest @zoo_bear is an assault on truth. He should be released immediately."
Zubair has been booked under sections 153A (promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Delhi Police said.
"Present case registered on basis of a post on Twitter by handle Hanuman Bhakt @ balajikijaiin where he showed his anger against another Twitter handle in name of Mohammed Zubair regarding the post “BEFORE 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel," said Delhi police officials.
"A picture (in tweet) shown where signboard of hotel ‘हनीमून होटल ’ changed to ‘हनुमान होटल ’. Hanuman Bhakt @ balajikijaiin tweeted, “Linking our God Haunman ji with honeymoon is a direct insult of Hindus because he is brahmchari. Kindly take action against this guy"," they added.
This post of Zubair containing picture & words against a particular religious community are "highly provocative & done deliberately" which are more than sufficient to incite hatred among people which can be detrimental for maintenance of public tranquillity, the Delhi Police further said.
Meanwhile, Pratik Sinha, co-founder of Alt News, commented on his colleague's arrest and wrote on Twitter, "Zubair was called today by special cell, Delhi for investigation in a 2020 case for which he already had a protection against arrest from High Court."
"However, today at around 6.45pm we were told he has been arrested in some other FIR for which no notice was given which is mandatory under law for the Sections under which he has been arrested. Nor FIR copy is being given to us despite repeated requests," Sinha said in a statement on the microblogging site.
