Days after being arrested over a four-year-old tweet that allegedly made derogatory references to Hindu deities, a team of Delhi Police conducted searches at the Bengaluru residence of the Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair.
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Sources said that the team left for Bengaluru early on Thursday and reached his home at around 11:30 am. Mr. Zubair is a resident of North Bengaluru's DJ Halli.
Police said the searches were conducted to recover electronic devices like his phone and laptop, which would be part of police evidence.
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This comes after two days after a Delhi court granted the Delhi Police four-day police custody remand of Mr. Zubair.
Mr. Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police's IFSO (Intelligence Fusion and Strategics Operation Unit) on June 27 over a tweet he had posted in 2018. The Delhi Police was alerted to the post by a Twitter handle which had retweeted Mr. Zubair's tweet earlier this month. He was arrested after being called to IFSO's Dwarka office for questioning in a 2020 POCSO case, in which he had already been granted protection from arrest by the Delhi High Court.
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Mr. Zubair has been booked under IPC sections pertaining to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.