Delhi Police seeks more time for Mohammed Zubair's interrogation, says he formatted phone 'intentionally'

The Delhi Police on Tuesday said AltNews cofounder Mohammed Zubair had intentionally formatted his phone and also refused to cooperate with authorities in the investigation against him in connection with an objectionable tweet providing grounds for his arrestZubair was arrested on Monday for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of a particular community in a Twitter post he had written in 2018Mohd Zubairs objectionable tweet led to a Twitter storm with hate speeches detrimental to communal harmony Two things including technical gadget and intention was important He was evasive on both the phone was formatted This formed grounds for his arrest said KPS Malhotra DCP IFSOThe official said that Delhi Police will seek more remand time to question himThe police official further refuted reports that Zubairs arrest was politically motivatedIf someone is booked in several cases its our right to question him in all Judiciary is involved custody given bail not granted there must be some substance to case Calling it politically motivated doesnt stand right Well ask for more remand said KPS Malhotra DCP IFSO Intelligence Fusion amp Strategic Operations unit of the Delhi PoliceZubair was arrested and sent to one day of police custody after a First Information Report FIR was registered against him based on a Twitter posting which another Twitter handle alleged hurt Hindu sentimentsDelhi Police said that Zubair was evasive during questioning and did not cooperate in the investigation He was evasive on the questions and neither provided the necessary technical equipment for the purpose of the investigation nor cooperated in the investigation said Delhi Police senior officialsThe officials also mentioned that the conduct of Zubair was found questionable which warranted his custodial interrogation to unravel conspiracy in this matterThe contentious tweet by Zubair was posted in March 2018The said post of Mohd Zubair containing picture and words against a particular religious community are highly provocative and done deliberately which are more than sufficient to incite hatred among people which can be detrimental for the maintenance of public tranquillity the Delhi Police said in a statementDCP Malhotra said If you endorse a view on social media it becomes your view Retweeting and saying I dont know doesnt stand here The Responsibility is yours Time does not matter you only have to retweet and it becomes new Police action was taken on basis of when the matter came to our cognizanceThe FIR against Zubair was lodged on June 20 based on the complaint filed by the Duty Officer of the IFSO unit of the Delhi Police Special Cell which tackles cyber crimesAccording to duty officer Arun Kumar while he was monitoring social media he saw a tweet shared by a person with the Twitter name Hanuman Bhakt and Twitter ID balajikijai The shared tweet was Mohammad Zubairs and contained objectionable wordsToday I was present in IFSO Intelligence Fusion amp Strategic Operations unit of Delhi Police Dwarka as an emergency officer and during social media monitoring it came to notice that a Twitter handle Hanuman Bhakt shared a tweet against another Twitter handle Mohammed Zubair zoo_bear in which it has been tweeted by Mohammed Zubair before 2014 Honeymoon hotel after 2014 Hanuman Hoteland has shown a picture of a signboard of one hotel honeymoon hotel changed to Hanuman hotel Kumar stated in his complaintThe screenshot of the board is from a Hindi movieThese words and the picture found to be used by Mohammed Zubair zoo_bear against a particular religious community and are highly provocative and more than sufficient to incite feeling of hatred amongst people which can be detrimental for maintenance of public tranquility in the society Transmission and publication of such posts has been deliberately done Mohammed Zubair zoo_bear through electronic media to insult the religious feelings of a particular community with intent to provoke breach of peace which attracts offence under Section 153A and 295From the contents of the post from Twitter handle Mohammed Zubair zoo_bear offence 153A and 295 is made out the FIR further statedCounsel for Alt News cofounder Zubair had moved bail application which was declined by the court on grounds of not finding meritsDelhi Polices application for oneday police remand was granted by the court said Delhi Police officialsZubair was booked under Sections 153A promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of religion race place of birth residence language and 295A Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs of the Indian Penal Code IPC Delhi Police saidPratik Sinha another cofounder at Alt News commented on his colleagues arrest and wrote on Twitter on Monday Zubair was called today by special cell Delhi for investigation in a 2020 case for which he already had a protection against arrest from High CourtHowever today at around 645 pm we were told he has been arrested in some other FIR for which no notice was given which is mandatory under law for the Sections under which he has been arrested Nor FIR copy is being given to us despite repeated requests Sinha said in a statement on the microblogging site yesterdayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever