Guwahati: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail in all six of the FIRs against Mohammad Zubair, a co-founder of Alt-News. The supreme court mandated his immediate release as well.
Zubair was granted bail by the Delhi Court in a FIR that was filed by the special cell of the Supreme Court, which claimed there was simply no rationale for keeping him in custody.
A wide range of tweets and funding relevant to the matter are currently being investigated by the special cell.
According to the court, Zubair would be granted a temporary release on bail upon submitting a bail bond of Rs 20,000 before the Patiala House magistrate court.
The bench further stated that it would be just if all FIRs were combined and subjected to a single authority’s investigation. The court added that consolidation of FIRs is preferable than piecemeal inquiry by various police authorities given the overlap of FIRs resulting from the tweets.
Zubair had previously asked the court to combine the numerous FIRs that had been filed against him with the one from the Delhi Police cell.
The court also gave the Delhi police control of every FIR that had been filed against him nationwide and in Uttar Pradesh. According to a Times of India article, it also disbanded the Special Investigation Team the Uttar Pradesh government had formed to look into the offensive tweets.
The top court stated that the Delhi Police will undertake a thorough investigation into the situation and that Zubair may approach the Delhi High Court to have any or all of the FIRs dismissed.
It’s interesting that the SC stated that this relief would apply to all FIRs that would be filed in the future about the same topic relating to the tweets he posted. Thus, Delhi Police will automatically get all upcoming FIRs filed anywhere in the nation.
In its ruling, the court also stated that the power of arrest must be distinguished from the power of arrest, which should only be used sparingly.