The Allahabad High Court has granted relief to Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt-News, by staying his arrest until January 6 in connection with an FIR filed against him over his post on 'X' (formerly Twitter) concerning an alleged inflammatory speech by Yati Narsinghanand.

Observing orally that Mohammed Zubair is not a "dreaded criminal," a bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Nalin Kumar Srivastava granted him relief, directing that he must not leave the country until the next hearing on January 6.

The court also conditioned the relief on his cooperation with the police investigation.

The bench issued this order after being unable to conclude the hearing in the case, as the State Government has yet to complete its arguments.

The State Government has been directed to file a detailed counter by January 6. With the court closing today for the winter break, proceedings are scheduled to resume on January 2.

During the hearing, which extended from 10 a.m. to approximately 2:20 p.m., the Uttar Pradesh government argued before the High Court that Mohammed Zubair's series of posts on 'X' regarding Yati Narsinghanand's alleged speech contained incomplete information and posed a threat to India's sovereignty and integrity.

Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal argued before the division bench that Mohammed Zubair’s post on 'X', allegedly intended to incite violence against Yati Narsinghanand, also promoted sentiments aligned with "separatist activity."

It is pertinent to note that Zubair faces an FIR, including charges under Section 152 BNS, filed based on a complaint by Udita Tyagi, General Secretary of the Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust.

The controversy stems from a thread of videos posted by Zubair on October 3, with the first tweet featuring a video of Yati Narsinghanand, the priest of Dasna Devi Temple, allegedly making inflammatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad. Zubair also tagged the Uttar Pradesh Police, questioning the actions taken against Narsinghanand. 

The complainant claimed that the old video clips shared by Zubair were intended to incite violence among Muslims. Zubair was also accused of instigating the violent protests against Yati Narsinghanand at Dasna Devi Mandir. In response, Zubair has moved the High Court, challenging the FIR.

Before the Court, his counsels argued that Zubair was merely exercising his freedom of speech by referencing Yati Narsinghanand's alleged speech and highlighting his conduct.

The counsel further emphasized that it was not just Zubair, but also numerous news articles and social media accounts, that had addressed the same issue, and Zubair had not shared anything different from what others had posted. The senior counsel also contended that Dr. Tyagi's complaint was merely a publicity stunt.

Additionally, it was argued that when Zubair made the post on 'X', there was no prohibition order from the police or any other administrative authority preventing the discussion of Yati Narsinghanand's speech.