Indian Fact-Checker Mohammed Zubair Faces New Court Hearing Over Hate Speech Post

Mohammed Zubair, a prominent Indian fact-checker and journalist, has returned to court, over two years after the Supreme Court granted him bail and mandated his “immediate release” from custody. On Tuesday, the Allahabad High Court conducted a brief hearing on his petition concerning a new case, in which police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh are seeking his arrest. The accusation against him is “endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India”. This charge is non-bailable, and a conviction carries a potential sentence of at least seven years in prison along with a fine, or even life imprisonment. Zubair, a co-founder of the fact-checking website AltNews, refutes all allegations leveled against him. He stated to the BBC, “I feel I’m being targeted because of the work I do.” The judges withdrew from the case after only 20 minutes into Tuesday’s hearing, meaning another court will need to address the matter in the near future. Zubair, whom some characterize as “a thorn in the side for the government because he’s single-handedly taking on hate crimes”, is sought in relation to a post he published on X that highlighted hate speech by a contentious Hindu priest. The post, shared on 3 October, contained a video depicting Yati Narsinghanand making remarks against Prophet Muhammad that many Muslims considered offensive. The 60-year-old priest leads the influential Dasna Devi temple in Ghaziabad town, Uttar Pradesh, and has frequently been reported for openly advocating violence against Muslims. In 2022, he was arrested for Islamophobic and misogynistic statements, serving a month in jail. The day after Zubair’s post highlighted Narsinghanand’s recent offensive comments, Muslims demonstrated outside the temple. PTI reported that police stated 10 individuals were arrested for allegedly throwing stones during the protest. Multiple Muslim organizations filed police complaints against Narsinghanand, and the priest subsequently vanished from public sight amidst reports of his arrest, which police later denied. Days later, hundreds of Narsinghanand’s supporters encircled the local police station, calling for action against Zubair. Police initiated a case against the fact-checker following a complaint filed by Uditya Tyagi, a politician from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a close associate of the priest. Initially, Zubair faced less severe charges, such as promoting enmity between various religious groups, defamation, and providing false evidence. However, last week, police appended Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, India’s new legal code, to the charges, accusing him of “endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India”. According to legal experts, this provision enables police to arrest Zubair. His lawyer has requested interim bail and petitioned the court to dismiss the case. Zubair, in his defense, asserts that he was not the sole individual to post Narsinghanand’s remarks, noting that several journalists, politicians, and media channels had tweeted the video prior to his post. He states, “Police have registered a case against me based on complaints from the followers of a man who routinely gives hate speeches. And they are going after someone who’s reporting hate speeches, while people giving hate speeches are going free.” He further adds, “This is an attempt to gag people trying to hold the government to account.” Pratik Sinha, Zubair’s colleague and co-founder of AltNews, suggests that authorities target Zubair due to the nature and impact of his work. He informed the BBC, “It’s a classic case of shooting the messenger. It’s a witch-hunt.” He questioned, “Why are the police invoking more stringent charges against him nearly two months later? It’s not just Narsinghanand and his supporters going after him – this is actually the government going after him.” The inclusion of the severe charge against Zubair has drawn criticism from human rights organizations and groups representing journalists and media in India, who contend that Section 152 constitutes a “new version” of the colonial-era sedition law. Amnesty International India stated that this exemplifies how the law is being employed “to harass, intimidate, and persecute human rights defenders, activists, journalists, students, filmmakers, singers, actors and writers for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression”. The Press Club of India denounced the action and called for the police case against Zubair to be dropped. In a statement, it asserted, “All sane minds have been opposing this section as it has potential to silence the free thinkers and media. It can also be imposed against those who are critical of dispensation.” Digipub, an association of digital media organizations, condemned the “escalating harassment” of Zubair, characterizing the allegations against him as “unfounded”. It stated, “This is a vindictive and unreasonable over-reach by agencies of the state.” The government encountered comparable criticism in 2022 when Zubair was arrested and detained for over three weeks before the Supreme Court granted him bail. Delhi police had apprehended him concerning a 2018 tweet, which was a screengrab from a well-known 1980s Bollywood film, but they charged him with “insulting Hindu religious beliefs”. Subsequently, police in Uttar Pradesh also filed cases against him, alleging other offenses including criminal conspiracy and the receipt of foreign funds. Gaurav Bhatia, a BJP spokesperson, had accused him of being “selective and politically biased” in his fact-checking work and claimed his tweets “hurt the religious sentiments of a large number of Hindus”. However, many observers at the time connected his arrest to the contentious Islamophobic remarks made by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. The Hindu newspaper asserted that Zubair was “being made to pay for a tweet that had drawn wide attention to Sharma’s vile remarks” against Prophet Mohammad, characterizing it as an example