In UP, FIR against Alt News co-founder for calling Dharam Sansad case accused ‘hatemongers’

Uttar Pradesh police has registered an FIR against Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair after he called Yati Narasinghanand, Mahant Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop “hatemongers” in a Twitter post, the Wire reported.

The FIR was filed on Wednesday at the Khairabad police station after a complaint from a Rashtriya Hindu Sher Sena member, Bhagwan Shara, under sections 295 A of the Indian Penal Code and 67 of the Information Technology Act 2000. The sections pertain to deliberately insulting religious belief and publishing obscene material in electronic form, respectively.

This came after the journalist criticised a Times Now debate held on May 26 on the Gyanvapi mosque controversy. “Why do we need hate mongers like Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati or Mahant Bajrang Muni or Anand Swaroop to arrange a Dharam Sansad to speak against a community and a religion when we already have anchors who can do much better job from news studios,” he had said.

BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who had participated in the debate, alleged that a “fact checker” had shared a “heavily edited” video of her remarks on May 28 and she was receiving death and rape threats on social media. Times Now took down the video of the debate from its YouTube channel.

Yati Narasinghanand, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop are among 10 people booked in connection with hate speeches that took place at a ‘Dharam Sansad’ held in Haridwar in December last year.