The Delhi High Court has asked Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair to move the trial court for release of his electronic devices, which were seized by the Delhi Police from his home in 2022 in the case concerning a tweet posted by him in 2018, Bar and Bench reported.

The Delhi Police Special Cell had filed an FIR against him in June 2022 over his tweet in 2018 under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity or hatred between different groups based on religion, community) and 295A (deliberate and malicious act that insults religion or religious beliefs).

In July, Zubair had approached the High Court challenging a Patiala House Court order remanding him to police custody and the order permitting examination and seizure of his laptop. He was subsequently granted bail by a trial court in the case. 

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma disposed of Zubair’s plea on Monday with the liberty to move an application before the trial court for release of the devices.

Zubair had argued that the police unlawfully raided his residence to seize the laptop and hard disk he was using for fact-checking assignments. “Further, the tweet in question clearly states it was posted from an Android device (mobile phone), so it has no connection to any laptop,” he had said. His petition had also claimed that the mobile phone he had been using at the time the tweet was posted had been lost and a lost article report was also filed with local police.

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