Even a well-meaning law aimed at protecting children is being used in attempts to silence voices that expose falsehoods, but this time a pushback has taken place.

At least one FIR, if not more, for alleged child abuse has been filed against Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of the fact-checking website AltNews, for taking on a Twitter troll.

Zubair had asked a Twitter user, Jagdish Singh, in reply to an offensive comment whether his granddaughter — a reference to a young girl seen in Singh’s profile picture — knew he abused people.

The FIR against Zubair has triggered outrage on social media and an #IStandWithZubair hashtag has come up.

Journalists and other social media users have accused the authorities of harassing Zubair because his fact-checking website has consistently busted fake news. Although Alt-News does not confine itself to scrutinising news disseminated by any particular section, many of the falsehoods it has exposed happened to have been spread by Right-wing sympathisers.

Zubair had responded to the video of a potholed road tweeted on August 6 by an inspector-general of police from Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh, Dipanshu Kabra, who asked people to guess the city.

Zubair had tweeted an AltNews report that said the video was from China in 2017. To this, Singh, who appears to be a Raipur resident, replied with an abusive comment.

Singh, whose profile picture showed an adult man and a young girl, had earlier too repeatedly used communal and abusive slurs against Zubair on Twitter.

Zubair replied with an image of Singh’s profile picture but with the girl’s photo blurred. “Hello Jagdish Singh, does your cute granddaughter know about your part-time job of abusing people on social media? I suggest you to change your profile pic,” he wrote.

The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights sent complaints to Delhi and Raipur police and both filed FIRs, The Indian Express newspaper has reported.

Scroll, a digital news publication, reported that the commission had taken cognisance of an August 8 complaint from an NGO, the Forum for Indigenous Rights — North-East India.

Two Twitter accounts from where Zubair received supportive replies have also been named in the complaint.

Zubair has been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Information Technology Act. He could not be contacted for comment.

Alt-News editor Pratik Sinha told The Telegraph: “We have only received a copy of the Raipur FIR so far. Under the criminal procedure code, a person can be booked for a single offence in only one FIR. We don’t know what jurisdiction Delhi police have as neither the complainant nor the defendant stays there, nor has the alleged offence been committed there.”

Sinha added: “We will challenge the validity of the FIR as the charges are absolutely trumped-up. The child’s image was blurred. The remarks were directed towards the guardian and not the child.... No private information of anyone was revealed by Zubair.”

Sinha has shared several past tweets by Singh that shared images and morphed images of women Opposition leaders and activists and carried sexually coloured remarks.

Many journalists and others have tweeted in support of Zubair over the past three days. Some of them have also tweeted receipts of their financial contributions to AltNews.

Senior journalist Seema Chishti tweeted: “As headlines over the last few weeks have made clear, the authorities in India are simply unwilling to take on abusive users on social media if they favour the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Instead, the lens is turned on those who highlight these abuses.”

Faye D’ Souza, former executive editor of Mirror Now, tweeted: “#IStandWithZubair and @AltNews The harassment will only stop when we speak up for each other.”

Actor Swara Bhaskar tweeted: “Stand with @zoo_bear (Zubair’s handle)! Stay strong buddy.”

Ashok Swain, a professor at Sweden’s Uppsala University, wrote: “Hindutva Gang doing what they do always! Harass the people who expose their lies.”

Another tweeter, M. Asif Khan, said: “Few weeks ago, a RW (Right Wing) guy abused @zoo_bear’s mother on TL (timeline), no action was taken against that abuser. But now Md Zubair is facing legal case, why?? Just because he busted RW Fake News Factory and he is a vocal Muslim? Unapologetically standing with him! #IStandWithZubair.”