Twitter user who flagged Mohammed Zubair’s 2018 tweet is ‘Delhi real estate businessman’: report

The Twitter user whose tweet led to the incarceration of AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair by the Delhi Police on June 27 for 'hurting religious sentiments' has been identified as a real estate businessman residing in Delhi’s Dwarka, as per an Indian Express report.

The accused, hailing from Ajmer in Rajasthan, who was traced by the police after receiving information on his IP address from Twitter, recorded his statement with the cops, as per the daily's report.

The handle @balajikijaiin, which went by the name of Hanuman Bhakt with a display picture of the Hindu deity Hanuman, was used by the accused to post tweets against Zubair. It currently stands 'suspended' with the microblogging website stating that it “suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules”.

Earlier, the handle did not exist on Twitter for a day. On June 29, a message on the handle read: ‘This account doesn’t exist’ but was back online the next day.

On June 19, the anonymous user had taken objection to a tweet posted by Zubair in 2018, wherein the fact checker had shared an image of a hotel signboard repainted from “Honeymoon Hotel” to “Hanuman Hotel”.

The account claimed that it was an insult to Hanuman and had tagged the Delhi Police and its Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations Unit which in turn filed a case against Zubair and arrested him.

As per The Indian Express report, the police sent the user a notice after tracking him down and asked him to record his statement at IFSO’s office in Dwarka. He does not appear to be affiliated with any political party, an unidentified police source was cited as saying in the report.

Earlier, Zubair’s lawyer Vrinda Grover in a Delhi court had opposed the police application and argued that the Twitter account in question was an anonymous handle made to create mischief. She accused the user of creating the account to target her client and demanded an investigation.

The Additional Public Prosecutor, however, refuted the claim stating that it was “not an anonymous Twitter handle”and called the user a “mere informer". “His details are here. Without details, no one can get a Twitter account," the public prosecutor contended.

On June 29, the investigation officer sent a notice under Section 91 of CrPC to Twitter India seeking details of the Twitter handle @balajikijaiin such as the IP log, registration, mobile number, connected email ID, and device used by the user, the police source told the newspaper.

The Supreme Court on July 20 granted interim bail to Zubair and ordered his immediate release. It also disbanded the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by Uttar Pradesh government to probe six separate cases against him and transferred all of them to the Delhi Police Special Cell.

The top court observed that there was no justification to keep the journalist in continued custody and stressed that grant of bail is not sufficient to secure the personal liberty of an individual embroiled in a series of cases.

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