AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of six FIRs registered against him by Uttar Pradesh police on the ground that they were false, motivated and mala fide.

Zubair has pleaded that if the Supreme Court does not reject the FIRs, then they should be clubbed together and tried at one place, preferably in Delhi, where he is already facing an FIR and had been remanded in judicial custody.

Besides the case registered by the Delhi police for a 2018 tweet through which he is accused of hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity, Zubair is facing criminal prosecution for various other tweets. These cases are registered in six places — Hathras (two FIRs), Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Lakhimpur Kheri and Sitapur.

Zubair has also urged the apex court to quash the constitution of a special investigation team by the Uttar Pradesh government headed by an inspector-general of police-rank officer.

On July 8, a Supreme Court vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J.K. Maheshwari had granted five-day interim bail to Zubair in the FIR registered against him by Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur police.

On July 12, a regular bench of the apex court extended “until further orders” the July 8 interim bail granted to Zubair relating to the FIR registered by the Sitapur police over allegedly objectionable tweets against certain Hindu leaders.

The bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna had extended the relief after the Uttar Pradesh government sought adjournment of the matter to file a counter-affidavit against the special leave petition submitted by Zubair challenging the FIR and Allahabad High Court’s refusal to quash it.

“…The interim bail which was granted by this court on 8 July 2022 shall continue to remain in operation, pending further orders while directing further hearing of the matter to September 7,” the bench said.

Even after getting bail in the Sitapur matter, Zubair continues to be in jail for the FIR registered against him by the Delhi police.

A Hathras court too has remanded Zubair in 14-day judicial custody.

Although interim bail has been granted “until further orders” by the apex court, Zubair will continue to remain in jail over similar charges filed by the police in Delhi and Hathras.

While granting interim bail on July 8, the Supreme Court had restrained Zubair from posting any further tweet, tampering with evidence or leaving the jurisdiction of the Delhi metropolitan court magistrate.