Indian court grants bail to Muslim journalist

India’s top court granted bail on Friday to a Muslim journalist accused of insulting Hindu religious leaders on Twitter, after his arrest last month raised concerns over media freedom.

But Mohammed Zubair, who co-founded fact-checking website Alt News and regularly tweets on the increasing marginalisation of India’s Muslim minority, will remain in police custody due to another complaint filed in the capital New Delhi.

A complaint filed in June in the Sitapur district of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh alleged that Zubair had hurt religious sentiments by describing a group of Hindu religious leaders as “hate mongers”, according to a court document.

Ruling on the Sitapur complaint, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court granted Zubair five days bail, and also ordered him to refrain from tweeting and tampering with any electronic evidence.

Earlier, on June 27, Delhi police arrested the Muslim co-founder of a fact-checking website, accusing him of insulting religious beliefs on Twitter, a network of digital media organisations said, condemning it as an attempt to harass him for his journalism.

Mohammed Zubair, who co-founded Alt News and regularly tweets on rising marginalisation of the Muslim minority in the country, was arrested under two sections of a law related to maintaining religious harmony, said the DIGIPUB association.

Alt News’s other co-founder, Pratik Sinha, said on Twitter no notice was given to Zubair before his arrest.