[2020 Tweet case] No criminality on part of Mohammed Zubair: Delhi Police tells Delhi High Court

The Delhi Police told the Delhi High Court on Thursday that it did not find any criminality against Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in relation to his tweets about a minor girl and, therefore, did not include his name in the chargesheet in the case. .Noting the submissions, single-judge Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani ordered the Delhi Police to place the chargesheet on record so that the court can proceed ahead with the plea filed by Zubair for quashing the case against him.Justice Bhambhani directed the police to give a copy of the chargesheet to Zubair as well and also asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj (appearing for National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) to obtain instructions in the matter. The case will now be heard on March 2. .The case against Zubair relates to his tweet replying to an abusive message from a user named Jagdish Singh.Zubair 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 him 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..The Delhi Police had filed an affidavit in the High Court in May 2022 stating that the tweet does not constitute any cognisable offence.The NCPCR challenged the Delhi Police's assertion arguing that the information provided by them (Police) clearly shows that Zubair has been trying to evade the investigation and, therefore, the submission that no cognizable offence was made out “is also incorrect and indicates the casual attitude of the police in this case”.The child rights protection body said that through his tweet, Zubair has violated the provisions of the IT Act as well as POCSO Act and, therefore, Delhi Police should be directed to conduct a thorough investigation against him and complete the same on priority.The NCPCR stated that even after knowing the fact that there were several comments being made on his post against the minor girl which were indecent and sexual in nature, Zubair neither tried to delete the tweet nor informed the concerned authorities about the users which indicated his mala fide intention.“That NCPCR submits that this case involving harassment and online stalking of a minor is a serious problem that has arisen through the wide usage of social media platforms like Twitter. That the act of the petitioner has not only violated the rights of a minor but has also violated the provisions of law as given under the IT Act, 2000, IPC, 1860 and POCSO Act, 2012," the NCPCR had said.