Like justice, truth is also being incriminated in Modi's New India. After arresting Teesta Setalvad and RB Sreekumar, the regime has now arrested Md. Zubair, cofounder of India's leading fact-checker @AltNews. CPIML GS Comrade Dipankar condemned his arrest and asked the government to stop persecuting Alt News and free Zubair immediately. He further added that the so called 'fringe element' Nupur Sharma still roams free, away from the 'reach' of the state, while Mohammed Zubair who brought her hate speech to the notice of the world is at the centre of the regime's action. Now under Modi's India the pursuit of justice has to pay the price of imprisonment!
Mohammad Zubair was called by the police in connection of a case for which he has immunity from arrest through a High Court order but was arrested in a different case pertaining to his 2018 tweet which was a screen grab of a 1983 film. He was not given a copy of the arrest warrant. Interestingly, after a Delhi court gave police four days' remand, Zubair's lawyers haven't been provided the copy of the same despite multiple requests to the concerned police personnel while the Republic TV has got remand copy which was shown on its channel!
Press Club of India noted the irony of India signing the 2022 Resilient Democracies Statement and committing to the protection of freedom of speech even as Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair is framed and arrested by Delhi Police for a 2018 tweet.
The Amnesty International said it is clear that the Indian authorities are targeting Mohammad Zubair for his crucial work combatting the rise in fake news and disinformation and calling out discrimination against minorities. They said that the danger facing human rights defenders has reached a crisis point in India and called on the Delhi Police to immediately and unconditionally release Mohammed Zubair and end their relentless harassment of journalists, human rights defenders and activists.
The All India Lawyers Association for Justice (AILAJ) expressed solidarity with Md. Zubair and demanded his immediate release terming his arrest an attack on the very nature of our democracy and which also is a vulgar display of power. Such acts of Modi government have already brought down India at 150th position in the World Press Freedom Index.
The Editors' Guild of India in a statement said that Zubair and his website AltNews have done some exemplary work over the past years in identifying fake news and countering disinformation campaigns in a very objective and factual manner. The Delhi Police should immediately release him which is also necessary to fulfil the commitment made by Narendra Modi in the G7 meet in Germany to ensure a resilient democracy by protecting online and offline content.
The CPIML held a protest in Patna on June 28 demanding unconditional release of Mohammad Zubair, Teesta Setalvad and RB Sreekumar which was addressed by party's leader of the legislative group Mahboob Alam and MLA Manoj Manzil.
