Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair on Thursday, July 14, moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of six FIRs lodged against him in several districts of Uttar Pradesh. In his plea, Zubair has also sought interim bail in all six cases. Zubair’s plea has also challenged the constitution of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the UP government to probe the six cases.

On Tuesday, the Uttar Pradesh government formed a two-member SIT to probe six cases against Zubair in Hathras, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, and Sitapur.  Inspector General Dr Preetinder Singh, who is presently posted at the Department of Prisons Administration and Reform, will head the SIT, while Deputy Inspector General of Police Amit Verma is a member of the SIT.

Meanwhile, a Hathras court on Thursday remanded Zubair to 14 days' judicial custody in a case in which he is accused of hurting religious sentiments. Zubair was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate Shivkumari under heavy security in connection with a case filed at the Sadar Kotwali police station on June 14.

The journalist who founded a fact-checking website faces similar cases in different places over a Twitter post four years back, which the complainants claim outraged Hindu sentiments. Zubair was brought to the Hathras court from Delhi's Tihar jail with a Delhi Police escort, and remanded to judicial custody till July 27.

His lawyer Umang Rawat argued that since the matter is four years old, the journalist's arrest was “malafide and made under political pressure.”

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court extended Zubair's interim bail till further orders in a case lodged in Sitapur district. But the relief did not have an effect as the journalist was already in judicial custody ordered by a Delhi court in another case. The Delhi Police arrested him on June 27 under charges of hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets.

With agency inputs