The Delhi High Court will tomorrow hear the petition filed by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, challenging the four-day police custody awarded to the Delhi Police him by a Delhi court.
Advocate Vrinda Grover mentioned the matter for early hearing before the Vacation Bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula on Thursday, which agreed to hear it on Friday.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria of Patiala House Courts had sent the co-founder of fact-checking site Alt News to four-day policy custody on June 28.
Delhi Police had arrested Zubair on June 27 and presented him before the Duty Magistrate on the same day, which granted his one-day custody to Police.
The accused was arrested under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between religious groups) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Zubair was arrested on a complaint filed by a Twitter handle called Hanuman Bhakt, which alleged that Zubair had tweeted a questionable image with the intention to deliberately insult the God of a particular religion.
Delhi Police said in a statement that a brigade of social media entities were allegedly indulging in insult mongering, threatening the communal harmony and maintenance of public tranquility.