POCSO Case On Altnews’s Zubair: Delhi Police Acting Casually, Taking Incorrect Stand, NCPCR Tells High Court

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday (11 October) that the Delhi Police are showing casual attitude in a case pertaining to cyber harassment of a minor girl by Altnews co-founder Mohammed Zubair.

In its affidavit, the child rights body said that the police’s stand that no cognizable offence was made out against the accused, is “incorrect”.

The POCSO Case Against Zubair

The case is from 2020 when, in an online spat with a Twitter handle, @JSINGH2252, Zubair went on to post the display picture used by the handle that showed him with a girl child, possibly his granddaughter.

Zubair blurred the girl’s picture and wrote, “Hello Jagdish Singh, Does your cute grand daughter know about your part time job of abusing people on social media?”

Zubair’s tweet came under heavy criticism from social media users who accused him of using a child to get back at a critic, but more importantly, it triggered a barrage of abuses at the child including threats of sexual crime.

On complaint of a group called Forum for Indigenous Rights-North-East India, the NCPCR took cognizance of the matter and wrote to the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Delhi, nodal cyber cell officer, asking the police to take “lawful action in the matter” of “stalking of a minor girl on Twitter”.

Two FIRs were subsequently filed against Zubair by the Delhi Police Cyber Cell and the Raipur Police respectively under sections of the IT Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The FIR in Raipur was filed under Section 509 B (sexual harassment by electronic mode) of the IPC, Section 12 (punishment for committing sexual harassment upon a child) of POCSO Act, and Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the IT Act.

NCPCR’s Affidavit

The hearing on Tuesday pertained to the FIR in Delhi. The NCPCR’s affidavit stated that by retweeting the girl’s picture, Zubair jeopardised her safety and exposed her to online harassment.

The NCPCR further said that Zubair neither deleted his tweet nor informed the authorities about Twitter users making abusive comments on his post.

“In view of the violations committed against the minor girl in the said case and the information provided by the Delhi Police in its status report dated May 14, 2022, the NCPCR requests this court to direct the Delhi Police to conduct a thorough investigation in this case and complete the same on priority," the NCPCR’s affidavit said.

At the time of publishing of this report, the tweet didn’t show on Zubair’s account. Instead, a message from Twitter is displayed, saying, “This tweet from @zoo_bear has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand.”

Zubair, in his defence, has maintained that the case made against him is “frivolous”.

Track Record Of Controversies

The controversial “fact-checker” was arrested in June this year on charges of promoting enmity on religious grounds and deliberately hurting religious sentiments through a tweet.

The tweet for which Zubair has been arrested was made in 2018. It showed a picture of signboard of a hotel, with a caption that said, “Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel”.

The same month, Zubair was booked by Khairabad Police in Uttar Pradesh for calling some Hindu seers “hate mongers”. Zubair was booked under sections 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

In May this year, Zubair posted a cropped video from a television debate that showed former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma commenting on the marriage of Islam’s founder.

He called Sharma a “rabid communal hatemonger” and accused her of speaking “ill about other religions” which “can incite riots”. The video triggered a spate of death and beheading threats against Sharma, who remains in hiding even today.

Last year in June, the Ghaziabad Police in Uttar Pradesh filed a police case against Zubair under sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 505 (publishing or circulating any statement, rumour or report with intent to incite), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. 

This came after Zubair posted a video of a Muslim man being beaten up while keeping the audio muted. Zubair had posted the video with the claim that it was a communal hate crime.

Zubair later deleted the video, accepting publicly that his version was incorrect.

The same month, Zubair was again booked by UP Police under sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 192 (fabricating false evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The FIR came after a Muzaffarnagar resident filed a complaint against him, alleging that Zubair abused him over the phone and threatened to murder him.

A History Of Targeting Journalists And Other Individuals

Swarajya has earlier reported how Zubair misused his Twitter reach to show a Dalit woman and her minor son as liars, thereby trying to sabotage their case against a neighbouring family.

The Dalit family had accused the neighbouring family, who were Muslims, of harassing them in order to make them leave the village. Swarajya had reported the family’s complaint and posted videos of the family’s statements.

Later, a probe by higher officials found that some local cops had tried to downplay allegations by the Dalit family in order to shield the accused. Despite being pointed out, Zubair neither apologised nor deleted his tweets against the family.