New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the police if it has taken any action against a Twitter user who had allegedly abused fact-checker and Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair on the platform.
A single-judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani was hearing a plea by Zubair challenging an FIR registered against him for a tweet by him in response to an abusive message with username Jagdish Singh.
The police had booked the petitioner and to quash the case, the latter moved the High Court.
The judge noted that the police has not named the petitioner in the charge sheet because it did not find any criminality against him, and asked if they have taken the case to a logical end.
“What did you do about this gentleman called Jagdish Singh. My question is if you found nothing against this man (Zubair), what did you do about the person who put out those offensive tweets,” he asked.
The case stems from an incident which took place in 2020, wherein the petitioner had called out Singh through his tweet for being a troll.
Zubair had retweeted his display picture, which featured his daughter but after pixelating/ blurring her image.
The tweet read: “Hello Jagdish Singh. Does your cute grand daughter know about your part time job of abusing people on social media? I suggest you to change your profile pic.”
This was followed by two FIRs against Zubair a month later in Delhi and Raipur.
They were filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) for allegedly “threatening and torturing” a minor girl on Twitter.
The court said: “Somebody (Jagdish Singh) starts a storm and you (Delhi Police) just say this person’s (Zubair’s) name is not in charge sheet therefore… I want to see if things are coming to a logical closure.”
It listed the matter for the next hearing on March 13 due to unavailability of advocate Nandita Rao who was appearing for the Delhi Police.
The court also asked Zubair’s counsel to inform the court about the status in the FIR registered against him in Chhattisgarh.
