“ASSAULT ON TRUTH”: INDIA JOURNALIST MOHAMMED ZUBAIR ARRESTED FOR 2018 TWITTER POST

New Delhi, India – Police in the Indian capital have arrested journalist Mohammed Zubair on charges of hurting religious sentiments for a tweet he posted in 2018.

Zubair, co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, was arrested on Monday evening in New Delhi and remanded for a day in police custody, officials and media reports said.

His arrest came five days after Twitter received a request from the government claiming his account violated Indian laws.

देश मे के बार फिर इमरजेंसी जैसे हालात बन रहे है। जिस नूपुर शर्मा की वजह से देश की इज्जत खराब हुई वो आजाद है और जिस @zoo_bear ने @NupurSharmaBJP को एक्सपोज़ किया उसे @DelhiPolice ने गिरफ्तार किया है। बेहद शर्मनाक #zoobear#zubairarrest #ShameOnDelhiPolicehttps://t.co/kTXDLvoQ9d

— Nikhil Sharma (@nikhilsh15) June 28, 2022

Alt News’s other co-founder, Pratik Sinha, said on Twitter no notice was given to Zubair before his arrest.

“He is currently detained inside a police bus in Burari for more than an hour,” Sinha said, referring to a New Delhi neighbourhood where Zubair was to be produced before a magistrate authorised the arrest.

In another tweet, Sinha wrote: “After the medical examination, Zubair is being taken to an undisclosed location. Neither Zubair’s lawyers or I are being told where. We are in the police van with him. No police is wearing any name tag.”

Dwarka, Delhi | Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair who has been sent to 1-day police remand brought to IFSO Special Cell, Delhi Police

He has been arrested over allegations of hurting the religious sentiments of a community pic.twitter.com/Zi0ZHWdjdD

— ANI (@ANI) June 27, 2022

Zubair, a former telecom engineer from the southern IT hub of Bengaluru, and Sinha, a software engineer from Ahmedabad, founded Alt News in 2017.

Since then, the website has busted numerous fake news stories, mostly pushed by Hindu right-wing portals, and claims made by members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or its supporters.

Zubair and Sinha have been facing online trolling and police cases for their work for years.

Delhi Police spokeswoman Suman Nalwa confirmed Zubair’s arrest to Al Jazeera and said Section 153 (giving provocation with intent to cause a riot) and Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code have been invoked against the journalist.

When asked about Sinha’s claims on Twitter that no prior notice was given or that Zubair was taken to an undisclosed location, Nalwa said: “I have not seen the tweets and I don’t respond to tweets.”

‘Another low for press freedom’

Journalists, activists and opposition leaders have condemned Zubair’s arrest, demanding his immediate release and calling the police move an “assault on truth”.

In a statement posted on Twitter, DIGIPUB News India Foundation, a network of digital media organisations, said the use of “stringent” laws as tools against journalists must stop.

Steven Butler, Asia programme coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said Zubair’s arrest “marks another low for press freedom in India”.

“Authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Zubair, and allow him to pursue his journalistic work without further interference,” Butler said, according to a statement posted on the CPJ website.

On World Press Freedom Day last month, 10 rights groups said Indian authorities were prosecuting journalists and critics under stringent laws for criticising the government’s policies.

Soon after Zubair’s arrest, hashtags #IStandWithZubair and #ReleaseZubair started trending on Twitter in India.

Rahul Gandhi, the main opposition leader of the Congress party, said “every person exposing BJP’s hate, bigotry and lies is a threat to them (government)”.

“Arresting one voice of truth will only give rise to a thousand more. Truth ALWAYS triumphs over tyranny,” Gandhi wrote.

Asaduddin Owaisi, parliamentarian and leading Muslim politician, said Zubair has been arrested in “total violation of due process”.

New Delhi-based academic and activist Apoorvanand told Al Jazeera Zubair’s arrest “makes it clear that this regime will not tolerate those who keep revealing the sources of hate and violence in India”.

“Zubair was one journalist who kept busting half truths or lies spread by the network of this regime,” said the professor of Hindi literature at Delhi University.

Two days before Zubair’s arrest, prominent Indian rights defender Teesta Setalvad was picked up by the anti-terrorism wing of the police in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

Setalvad was picked up from her home in Mumbai hours after federal Home Minister Amit Shah, a close aide of Modi, accused her of giving “baseless information” to the police about the 2002 Gujarat violence, in which at least 1,000 people, an overwhelming majority of them Muslims, were massacred when Modi was the state chief minister.

Setalvad was formally arrested on Sunday, with rights group Amnesty International calling it a “direct reprisal against those who dare to question” the government’s human rights record.