No case against user over 'objectionable' tweet on Mohammad Zubair, Delhi Police tells HC

In its status report, the Delhi Police said the tweet by the twitter user did not 'cause fear or alarm' in the public or induce any person to commit an offence against any state or against public tranquillity.

New Delhi: The city police has told the Delhi High Court that no case has been registered against a twitter user for his "objectionable" tweet against Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair.

While dealing with Zubair's petition for quashing an FIR registered against him following an online spat with the social media user, the court had in May last year asked the city police to inform it about the action they had taken against the other party for his "evidently offensive tweets" which "may amount to hate speech".

In its status report, the Delhi Police said the tweet by the twitter user did not "cause fear or alarm" in the public or any section of the public or induce any person to commit an offence against any state or against public tranquillity.

The investigating agency said it examined the user in order to enquire about his "intention and purpose" behind writing the comment in question.

"That in view of above, no case has been registered in relation to the captioned tweet against the complainant (the Twitter user)", the status report said.

In 2020, the Delhi Police had registered an FIR against Zubair for offences under the Information Technology Act for allegedly threatening and torturing a girl child on the social media platform after he responded to the Twitter user who was using a photograph with his minor daughter as display picture.

Zubair's counsel earlier told the court that he was being trolled for his posts on Twitter by that man who abused and demeaned him and even left communally-charged comments on his page on the micro-blogging platform.

He stated that when he subsequently posted the display picture of the man standing with his minor daughter, whose face was cautiously blurred by the petitioner, a complaint was made against him.

Although the police earlier told the court that it has not found any criminality against Zubair in the present case and his name has not been included in the charge sheet, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani directed that a status report be filed over the action taken against the person who had posted the offensive tweet against Zubair.

"The question that had come up on earlier dates, and which continues to survive however, is as to what action has been taken by the State in relation to the evidently offensive tweets made by respondent No. 3 (the user), which may amount to ‘hate speech’, which tweets were the genesis of the matter", the court had said in its order passed on May 26 last year.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had earlier contended before the high court that the submission of the city police that no cognisable offence was made out against Zubair, was "incorrect" and that the agency's stand indicates the casual attitude of the authorities.

The high court had, in September 2020, directed the Delhi Police not to take any coercive steps against Zubair in the case. It had also directed Twitter India to cooperate with police in the investigation.

Zubair had described the allegations levelled against him in the FIR as "absolutely frivolous".