After SC grants bail, Alt News’ Zubair summoned by Lakhimpur Kheri court

Alt News‘ co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who was granted interim bail on Friday (July 8) by the Supreme Court in a case, has now been issued a fresh warrant by a court in Uttar Pradesh in another case field last year.

The Lakhimpur Kheri court has summoned Zubair to appear before it on July 11. The Lakhimpur Kheri police obtained a warrant against Zubair in a case lodged at Mohammadi police station last year on charges of promoting enmity between two groups, according to an Indian Express report on Saturday.

Also read: SC grants 5-day bail to Mohammed Zubair

The Lakhimpur Kheri case was filed in September last year on a court directive. On Friday, the Lakhimpur Kheri police moved a local court, obtained a warrant against Zubair, and served the warrant at Sitapur district jail, where he is lodged, the report added.

Superintendent of Police, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sanjeev Suman said it was the jail officials’ responsibility to produce Zubair in court. According to the police, a person named Ashish Kumar Katiyar filed a case accusing Zubair of circulating false news on Twitter in order to disturb communal harmony. A case was lodged against Zubair under Section 153-A (promoting enmity between two groups) of the Indian Penal Code, the report said.

Also read: Razorpay shared donor data with police without our nod, says Alt News

On Friday, the Supreme Court granted five days of interim bail to Zubair, who was recently arrested by Delhi Police.

Zubair was arrested by Delhi police on June 27 for making an “objectionable” tweet related to the Hindu deity Hanuman in 2018. On July 4, a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur remanded him to 14 days’ judicial custody based on FIR against him for allegedly calling Hindu seers “hate mongers.”

In his bail petition the hate speech case, Zubair had told a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari on Thursday that he was facing threat to his life.

Also read: Another case slapped; Alt News’ Zubair sent to 14 days’ custody