Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair was booked by Ghaziabad Police on Monday for allegedly promoting enmity between religious groups, following a complaint filed by an associate of controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand.
Narsinghanand, the priest at Dasna Devi temple, is facing multiple FIRs and protests after an alleged hate speech at Hindi Bhawan in Ghaziabad on September 29. As reported he and his aides were detained by Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday.
Zubair called the FIR ‘unfortunate,’ telling that it was filed without verification, despite other journalists covering the same event. He said, ‘The FIR against me seems intentional.’
According to police, the complaint was filed by Udita Tyagi, general secretary of the Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust, at Kavi Nagar police station. Tyagi accused Zubair of sharing an old video of Narsinghanand on October 3 to provoke violence by Muslims and claimed he edited the clips to incite radical sentiments.
Tyagi further alleged that Zubair’s posts on October 4 and 5 led to an attempted attack on the Dasna Devi temple, from which she and Narsinghanand narrowly escaped due to police intervention. She also stated that Zubair included the names of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, BJP MLA Nand Kishore Gurjar, and herself in his posts, after which she received death threats on social media.
