LUCKNOW, May 22: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt News, in connection with a First Information Report (FIR) lodged against him over a social media post concerning controversial remarks made by priest Yati Narsinghanand.
A bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Dr. Yogendra Kumar Srivastava declined to quash the FIR but ruled that Zubair would not be arrested while the investigation is underway. “The protection would be available to him during the probe,” the bench stated.
The FIR, registered by Ghaziabad Police in October 2024, accuses Zubair of promoting enmity between religious groups. It was filed by Udita Tyagi, an associate of Yati Narsinghanand, who alleged that Zubair's social media activity incited violence by sharing old video clips of the priest, thereby provoking communal unrest. She claimed the posts led to violent protests at the Dasna Devi Mandir in Ghaziabad.
Zubair, who has moved the High Court to challenge the FIR, contended that his intention was not to incite, but to expose and seek action against hate speech. “By posting a thread of videos on October 3 featuring Yati Narsinghanand, and later sharing other tweets with his various controversial speeches, I aimed to highlight Narsinghanand’s provocative statements and urge the police authorities to take strict action,” he stated in his plea.
The FIR was later amended to include charges under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with acts endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India.
Representing the Uttar Pradesh government, counsel argued in support of the FIR, stating that Zubair’s posts on X (formerly Twitter) “created a narrative aimed at inciting the public.” The government contended that the timing and content of his posts were “deliberate,” and accused him of circulating “half-baked information” that “damaged and threatened India’s sovereignty and integrity.”
Zubair, however, maintained that his posts were made in his role as a journalist and fact-checker, and that they were grounded in material already available in the public domain. “I was exercising my freedom of speech by highlighting Yati Narsinghanand’s conduct, which was also reported by various news articles and social media accounts,” he argued.
A final ruling on the validity of the FIR is still pending, and the court has scheduled further hearings on the matter.
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