Thu May 22 17:12:25 UTC 2025: **Summary:**
The Allahabad High Court declined to dismiss an FIR against fact-checker Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt News, regarding tweets he made about religious leader Yati Narsinghanand. The FIR, lodged by Uttar Pradesh Police based on a complaint alleging Zubair’s tweets were intended to incite violence, includes charges under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including promoting enmity and defamation. While the court denied quashing the FIR, it extended Zubair’s interim protection from arrest and instructed him to cooperate with the investigation. Zubair argues his tweets merely alerted authorities to Narsinghanand’s actions and did not incite violence or constitute defamation.
**News Article:**
**Allahabad HC Refuses to Quash FIR Against Alt News Co-founder Mohammed Zubair Over Tweets**
*New Delhi – May 22, 2025* – The Allahabad High Court today refused to quash a First Information Report (FIR) filed against Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, concerning tweets he posted about controversial religious leader Yati Narsinghanand.
The Uttar Pradesh Police filed the FIR based on a complaint from Udita Tyagi, a priest at Dasna Devi Temple in Ghaziabad, alleging that Zubair’s October 3, 2024, tweets, which shared an old video of Narsinghanand, were intended to incite violence against him. The FIR includes charges under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including promoting enmity between groups, fabricating false evidence, outraging religious feelings, defamation, and criminal intimidation. An additional charge of promoting enmity (Section 152 of BNS) was later added.
A bench of Justices Siddhartha Varma and Yogendra Kumar Srivastav ordered Zubair to cooperate with the ongoing investigation but extended his interim protection from arrest, which was initially granted in December 2024.
Zubair’s legal team argued that his posts on X (formerly Twitter) did not advocate for violence against Narsinghanand. They claimed he simply alerted the authorities to the religious leader’s actions, requesting action as per law. The plea contested the defamation charge, asserting that sharing publicly available videos of Narsinghanand to seek legal action could not be considered defamation.
The court’s decision marks the latest development in the legal battle surrounding Zubair’s social media activity and its impact on religious sentiments. The investigation continues as authorities examine the content of the tweets and their potential impact on public order.
First Piper 