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Synopsis

In a case registered against him last year on charges of promoting enmity between groups, a local court in ’s Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh on Monday sent the Co-Founder of Alt News, Mohammed Zubair to 14 days’ judicial custody.

Zubair appeared before the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Ruchi Srivastava through video conference in the case, the Indian Express reported quoting additional prosecuting officer (Lakhimpur Kheri) Awdhesh Kumar.

On Monday, Lakhimpur Kheri police also moved an application in a local court seeking 14 days’ police custody of Zubair to question him which will be heard on July 13.

On Friday, the police had moved a local court and had obtained a ‘warrant B’ against Zubair.

The instant case pertains to the allegations made by one Ashish Kumar Katiyar, a local TV journalist, that Zubair had circulated false news on content broadcast by his channel, disturbing communal harmony.

Katiyar had moved the court seeking directions for registration of a First Information Report after the local police did not entertain his complaint. Thereafter, a case was registered against Zubair on September 18 last year under IPC Section 153A (promoting enmity between two groups).

Last week, the Supreme Court granted five days’ interim bail to Zubair in the Sitapur case after a day, the local court in Sitapur rejected his bail plea. On the UP Police's plea moved seeking Zubair's police custody remand for 12 days, the local court, on July 7,  had granted Zubair's custody to the UP police from July 8 till July 14.

Earlier, in another case over his one tweet from the year 2018, a Delhi Court rejecting his bail plea directed him to be placed in judicial custody for 14 days.