'Triumph of liberty over tyranny': Congress’ P Chidambaram on fact-checker Zubair's bail

On Wednesday night, Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair walked free out of jail twenty-four days after his arrest.

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New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday (July 20) hailed the Supreme Court for granting bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, saying it is the victory of freedom over tyranny. "Grateful to the SC for releasing Mohammed Zubair. It is the triumph of liberty over tyranny. The SC should release all other Zubairs too and put an end to the abuse of the power of arrest," Chidambaram tweeted. 

In another tweet he asked said every lover of liberty to tweet using the hashtag 'I am Mohammed Zubair'."Tweet your thoughts on the precious rights of liberty and freedom. After the SC judgement dated July 11, 2022, today's judgement re-affirms that the abuse of the power of arrest must be ended," the Congress leader said. 

Zubair, a fact-checker, walked free out of jail twenty-four days after his arrest on Wednesday night. Earlier today, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Mohammed Zubair in all the six cases registered against him in Uttar Pradesh for alleged derogatory tweets. A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna released Zubair on bail subject to furnishing of a bail bond of Rs 20,000 with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Patiala House Court, New Delhi. 

The Supreme court said it finds "no reason or justification for the deprivation of his liberty to persist any further". The bench also ordered the disbanding of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Uttar Pradesh police and clubbed all cases lodged against him in the state and transferred them to Delhi.

The apex court also refused to prevent Zubair from tweeting in the future as sought by the UP government. "Can a lawyer be restrained from arguing?" the bench asked adding "how can a journalist be restrained from tweeting and writing?" "If he violates any law by tweeting or for that matter any citizen speaking in public or private, then he can be proceeded as per the law", the bench said in its order.