Ghaziabad assault case: Karnataka HC issues notice on journalist Mohammad Zubair’s transit bail plea

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday issued a notice on a plea filed by journalist Mohammad Zubair seeking transit bail in a case registered against him for sharing a video of an assault of an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad, reported Live Law.

Zubair along with news website The Wire, journalists Saba Naqvi, Rana Ayyub, Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Masqoor Usmani and Sama Mohammad have been booked for sharing the video. Social media platform Twitter has also been booked as the posts were shared on it.

The police have filed the first information report against them under sections 153 (giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings), 505 (statements conducting public mischief) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

The FIR said that despite a clarification put out by the Ghaziabad Police, ruling out any communal angle, the users did not delete the posts and Twitter took no action to remove them.

During Tuesday’s hearing, advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for Zubair, told the High Court that the Uttar Pradesh Police sent the notice to the journalist on Monday under Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code and asked him to appear before the investigating officer on June…

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