FIR Against Alt News Co-Founder Muhammad Zubair, The Wire, Twitter, Congress Leaders For Malicious Attempt To Communalise Ghaziabad Assault Case

The Ghaziabad police on Tuesday (15 June) filed first information report (FIR) against six individuals, including journalists and Congress politicians, under various sections of the IPC for sharing a video on social media platform Twitter with the deliberate and malicious intention to foment religious discord, The Times Of India reported.

The individuals named in FIR include Mohammad Zubair, the co-founder of propaganda website Altnews and journalists Saba Naqvi and Rana Ayyub. Two Congress leaders Slaman Nizami and Dr Shama Mohammed also feature in the FIR

The FIR has also named Twitter India and The Wire for falsely giving communal colour to an incident in Loni.

“There is no communal angle to the incident in Loni where a man was thrashed and his beard was chopped off. The following entities-The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Mohammad Zubair, Dr Shama Mohammed, Saba Naqvi, Maskoor Usmani, Slaman Nizami-without checking the fact, started giving communal colour to the incident on Twitter and suddenly they started spreading messages to disrupt the peace and bring differences between the religious communities,” the Ghaziabad Police noted in their FIR.

The Ghaziabad Police also accused Twitter of “doing nothing to prevent the video from getting viral,” named the company, Twitter Communications India Private Limited, The Wire, as well as other individuals as accused in the FIR. The case was registered on Tuesday.

The FIR contains sections 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.

A video, purportedly that of a 72-year-old Muslim man being beaten up, his beard forcibly cut and made to chant “Jai Siya Ram,”, went viral on social media two days ago.

An investigation by Ghaziabad police revealed that the suspected perpetrators were known to the victim Sufi Abdul Samad, who hails from Anupshahr in Bulandshahr district. They also said the incident was one of “personal dispute”. Among those arrested for the assault include at least 2 Muslims.

Iraj Raja, superintendent of police (rural), said Samad, who made a living by selling “taveez (amulets for good luck)”, was beaten up over the amulets that he had sold the suspects, which apparently had not brought the wearers any “good luck”.

Altnew Founder Muhammed Zubair, who also faces charges in a POSCO case (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences), for posting pictures of minor granddaughter of a elderly person in social media.

Zubair, who circulated the video widely in social media, later deleted it.