New Delhi: Delhi’s Patiala House Court on Friday granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in a case related to an alleged objectionable tweet case in which he was arrested by Delhi Police last month.
Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangla on Friday granted bail to Zubair and directed him to deposit a personal bail bond of Rs50,000 and similar amount as surety.
He cannot leave the country without prior permission of the court, ASJ Devender Kumar Jangla added. On Thursday, the court had kept the order reserved after the conclusion of the argument of both sides.
Delhi Police special public prosecutor Atul Srivastava, while opposing the bail plea of Zubair, submitted that the bail should not be granted at this stage as there is a violation of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
Investigation in the matter is at a good pace without any bias, he said.
Delhi Police said: “Rs 56 lakh were received by the organisation where he (Mohd Zubair) is a director violating FCRA. We gave notice to the Razor pay. There is also a certain forgery in this case which may be done, we are looking at that. The bank’s notice has already been issued.”
The police alleged that it was done in a planned and clever way. “It is not as simple as Zubair’s lawyer has projected,” Delhi Police’s lawyer submitted.
Atul Srivastava submitted before the sessions court that Zubair through tweets hurt the sentiments of a community.
Advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for Zubair denied Delhi Police allegations of foreign funding.
She submitted, “No foreign contribution has been received by me, neither in my personal nor in the organisation’s account. We have invited people to donate to our organisation but it is boldly written that we don’t accept foreign funding...as we’re not registered under FCRA. Therefore we don’t take foreign remittances. Our receiving of the donations and funding are very transparent.”
Zubair’s lawyer, however, showed a screenshot of the Alt News portal which is clearly written that ‘donate now’ and was in the public domain. “It is a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) under Pravada Media. He has not received any foreign contribution neither in the form of Indian currency nor in foreign currency,” the lawyer submitted.
