New Delhi: Over a year after the Supreme Court clubbed all FIRs accusing suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma of “hurting religious sentiments” and transferring them for investigation to the Delhi Police, the cases have been in cold storage, ThePrint has learnt.
Similarly, investigation in cases filed against Alt News co-founder, Mohammed Zubair, has not moved forward in the past over a year, Delhi Police sources told ThePrint.
Both are accused of “hurting religious sentiments” in separate cases.
While Sharma is accused of making controversial comments against Prophet Mohammed during a TV debate in May last year, sparking outrage across the country, Zubair is accused of posting provoking content on social media.
Incidentally, Zubair was instrumental in highlighting Sharma’s controversial remarks on social media.
According to Delhi Police sources, the investigation in the Nupur Sharma cases has not moved since August last year as all “case files have not been received from different states”.
“We have received 14 case files, and one is awaited from Maharashtra,” a source said.
Moreover, Sharma has not been called in for questioning even once, sources added.
According to police documents seen by ThePrint, 15 FIRs were registered against Sharma across Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana and J&K. Sharma, who was suspended by the BJP in June last year. Sharma had put in a plea in court for clubbing of all FIRs against her and expressed fears over “threats to her life”.
According to a senior police officer, she had recorded a three-page statement soon after the cases were clubbed together, but “has not been called for questioning after that”.
As part of the investigation, the Delhi Police had sought raw footage of the TV episode that featured Sharma from a media house, which had been “analysed”, said the sources.
A second police source said that, in her statement, Sharma had claimed that the particular video clip had been “edited” and used “out of context”.
Sharma had last June put out a post on social media explaining her remarks, adding that “I hereby unconditionally withdraw my statement” and “it was never my intention to hurt anyone’s religious feelings”.
In Zubair’s matter, the top court had in July last year clubbed six cases filed against him in Uttar Pradesh (UP), for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and rioting, and transferred them to Delhi. Two separate cases had also been filed against him in Delhi, in 2020 and 2022, relating to purported social media posts put up by him.
Delhi Police sources told ThePrint that all case files on Zubair have been received, but he was last questioned at the time of his arrest last June and during his police custody. Zubair’s phone and laptop continue to be in police custody.
“The cases (against Sharma and Zubair) are under investigation and it won’t be appropriate to divulge further details at the moment,” Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Delhi Police, H.G.S. Dhaliwal told ThePrint.
Speaking to ThePrint on behalf of Zubair’s legal team, advocate Soutik Banerjee said: “The police have not contacted him since his release on bail (in July 2022).”
“It is relevant to mention that his electronic devices had been seized by the Delhi Police after his sensational arrest and remand, but nothing seems to have come of it yet. One wonders why devices of journalists and fact-checkers are seized and retained in this manner, and why is a person arrested, when nothing alarming was imminent,” he said, adding that “more than a year later, no chargesheet seems to be forthcoming”.
ThePrint also reached Sharma for comment on her case through calls and Whatsapp messages. The copy will be updated if and when a response is received.
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Action against Zubair
Zubair was arrested for a case registered against him over an alleged social media post made in 2018 referring to a Hindu mythological figure. The Delhi Police had registered an FIR in the case on 20 June last year. A couple of hours after questioning him, the police arrested him.
The complainant, who went by the name ‘Hanuman Bhakt’ on social media platform ‘X’ (previously Twitter), had tagged the Delhi Police on the tweet on 19 June and the FIR was registered a day later.
Zubair was also booked by Delhi Police under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, on the basis of a complaint filed by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson Priyank Kanoongo relating to the use of a blurred image of a minor girl in an alleged social media post.
“He was also questioned in connection with Nupur Sharma’s case as she was receiving threats and had mentioned Zubair’s name in the matter,” a third police source told ThePrint.
Other FIRs were registered against Zubair in Uttar Pradesh over his alleged social media posts — one in Sitapur on 1 June, 2022, two in Hathras on 10 June and 4 July, 2022, one in Lakhimpur Kheri on 18 September, 2021, one in Loni district of Ghaziabad on 15 June, 2022, and one in Muzaffarnagar on 24 July, 2021.
Of the six FIRs registered in UP, only one doesn’t mention Zubair’s social media posts or accounts. This FIR, registered on 10 June in Hathras, is for “rioting”.
ThePrint has copies of the FIRs.
The UP Police had filed a final report in the Muzaffarnagar FIR before the SC’s direction on clubbing the FIRs.
“The trial in this case too (Muzaffarnagar) was transferred to Delhi. There has been no further development,” Banerjee said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Who is Nupur Sharma? DUSU ex-president & LSE alum now suspended by BJP for remarks on Prophet