The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Delhi Police whether it has taken any action against the person who allegedly posted abusive tweet against fact-checker and Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, Bar and Bench reported.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani was dealing with a plea filed by Zubair challenging a first information report (FIR) registered against him for a tweet put out by him.
Zubair had put the tweet in response to an abusive message from a user named Jagdish Singh.
Subsequently, Zubair was booked by the Delhi Police prompting him to approach the High Court to quash the case.
While noting that the Police has not named Zubair in the chargesheet, Justice Bhambhani asked whether the Delhi Police has taken the case to a logical conclusion.
“What did you do about this gentleman called Jagdish Singh. My question is if you found nothing against this man (Zubair), what did you do about the person who put out those offensive tweets,” the Court asked Delhi Police’s counsel.
The case dates back to 2020 when Zubair in his tweet, had called out Singh for being a troll and retweeted his display picture which featured his daughter but after pixelating/ blurring the daughter’s image.
The tweet read,
“Hello Jagdish Singh. Does your cute grand daughter know about your part time job of abusing people on social media? I suggest you to change your profile pic.”
A month later, two First Information Reports (FIRs) were filed against Zubair in Delhi and Raipur under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) for allegedly “threatening and torturing” a minor girl on Twitter.
In an affidavit, the Delhi Police said it has not named Zubair in the chargesheet because it did not find any criminality against him.
Justice Bhambani then asked whether any action has been taken against Singh.
“Somebody (Jagdish Singh) starts a storm and you (Delhi Police) just say this person’s (Zubair’s) name is not in chargesheet therefore… I want to see if things are coming to a logical closure,” Justice Bhambhani remarked.
The Court then proceeded to list the case for further consideration on March 13 due to unavailability of advocate Nandita Rao who was leading the Delhi Police.
The court also asked Zubair’s counsel to inform the Court about the status in the FIR registered against him in Chhattisgarh. (Bar and Bench)