UP police forms SIT to probe cases against Zubair in various districts

lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police Tuesday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a "transparent" and expeditious probe into cases lodged against Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in various districts of the state, a senior official said.

The SIT will be headed by Inspector General (Prisons) Preetinder Singh while IG Amit Verma will be its member, Additional Director General (Law & Order) Prashant Kumar said, adding they will be assisted by three deputy superintendents of police/inspectors.

The SIT has been asked to conduct the probe expeditiously and submit a charge sheet in the court,

Kumar said.

Separate FIRs have been lodged against Zubair in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar and Hathras districts on charges of hurting religious feelings, making sarcastic remarks on news anchors, disrespecting Hindu gods and inflammatory posts, officials here said.

The Sitapur FIR was lodged on June 1 under Indian Penal Code section 295A and section 67 of the IT Act on a complaint by Hindu Sher Sena district president Bhagwan Sharan. Sharan had filed the complaint for a tweet by Zubair in which he allegedly called three Hindutva leaders- Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop -- "hate-mongers".