All cases against fact-checker Mohammed Zubair will be probed by a Special Investigation team in Uttar Pradesh, reports ndtv.com.

Zubair has cases against him across in Sitapur, Lakhimpur, Hathras and Muzaffarnagar.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court extended till further orders the interim bail of Alt News co-founder in a case lodged against him in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly outraging religious sentiments.

The relief, however, is restricted to the Sitapur case and the proceedings against the Alt News co-founder in Delhi and UP's Lakhimpur will remain unaffected.

This means the "fact-checker' will still be in jail.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna was told by Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the State government, that it wants to file a counter affidavit to Zubair's plea seeking quashing of the FIR lodged in the case, reports PTI.

Raju said that since Zubair has already been granted bail in the matter, there should not be any objection from his side for grant of time to file the affidavit.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Zubair, said he has already been granted interim bail by the vacation bench of this court and they would also like to file their reply to the counter affidavit to be filed by the state government.

The bench then listed the plea for final hearing on September 7 and asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file its response in four weeks. It said that rejoinder, if any needs to be filed by Zubair's side, then it should be filed in two weeks thereafter.

On July 8, a vacation bench of the top court had granted five-day interim bail to Zubair in the case.

Zubair is in judicial custody as per the order of a Delhi court in another case.

Earlier, the top court had barred Zubair from posting anything on Twitter and said he shall not tamper with any evidence, electronic or otherwise.

It had also clarified that its interim bail order is with respect to the First Information Report(FIR) lodged in Sitapur and has nothing to do with a separate case registered against the journalist in Delhi.

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