Post on Yati’s hate speech: Court extends stay on Mohammed Zubair’s arrest

The court has highly recommended that there should be adequate investigations and authentication of evidence before going any further in the proceedings.

The Allahabad High Court (HC) on Thursday, January 16, extended the stay on the arrest of the co-founder of fact-checking platform Alt News Mohammed Zubair till January 27.

The case relates to an FIR registered against Zubair for a social media post related to the far-right controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand.

The order was passed by a bench consisting of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Yogendra Kumar Srivastava. According to Live Law, the three-judge bench permitted the Uttar Pradesh government to take more time to scrutinise documents presented by Zubair’s defence.

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The High Court further agreed to the petition for a longer period of stay against his arrest which gives Zubair a reprieve from potential arrest while the legal case moves forward.

The Court has highly recommended that there should be adequate investigations and authentication of evidence before going any further in the proceedings.

Earlier, on January 6, Zubair was asked to file a rejoinder to the counter-affidavit by the state government within ten days.

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Background of the case

The FIR was filed in October 2024 by the Ghaziabad police based on a complaint that had been lodged by Yati Narsinghanand’s associate.

The complaint pertains to a post made by Zubair in X wherein he retweeted a video of Narsinghanand and tagged the UP police, questioning the lack of action against inflammatory remarks against Indian Muslims and Prophet Muhammad made by the priest.

The complaint claims that Zubair’s post was intended to incite discord between religious communities.

Zubair’s supporters claimed that the FIR was a continuation of an attempt to intimidate journalists and activists who counteract hatred and fake news.

The next hearing scheduled for January 27 is believed to be a turning point in the case.

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