Delhi High Court to hear Zubair’s plea challenging arrest, remand tomorrow

The Delhi High Court has agreed to hear tomorrow Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair's plea challenging his arrest and police remand on the charge of hurting religious sentiments following a complaint over a tweet from 2018, his lawyers said.

On June 28, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Savaria had sent Zubair to police custody for four days as the police claimed he was "non-cooperative" and had to be taken to his residence in Bengaluru for the recovery of the phone/laptop used for posting the tweet that led to a complaint from a user.

The challenge to the police remand was filed before Justice Sanjeev Narula who is expected to hear the application moved by Advocate Vrinda Grover, Zubair's lawyer, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Zubair's lawyers had earlier argued before the CMM that he did not edit any image but used a still image from a Hindi film in his tweet, and that his arrest bordered on absurdity.

According to the police, Zubair had edited the image used in the tweet.

Zubair's lawyers had argued that the police were seeking access to his laptop because he has been "challenging many things that are happening".

Zubair's arrest has come under fire from journalists' organizations, rights activists and opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.