New Delhi

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Uttar Pradesh police not to take any precipitative action against fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in any of the FIRs filed in the state till July 20.

The apex court issued notice to the UP government on the plea of Zubair seeking interim bail, quashing of all FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh and also challenging the constitution of SIT.

The apex court posted the matter for next hearing on July 20.

The top court noted that it appears that Zubair is being taken into custody in other FIR if he gets bail in one and that the content of the FIRs appeared similar.

There are six FIRs against Zubair in Uttar Pradesh. They have been filed in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad and Hathras.

The Alt-News co-founder had submitted a plea before the top court to either quash the six FIRs in UP or club all of them with the FIR at Delhi, where he was first arrested, to avoid multiplicity of proceedings and prolonged detention.

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The Delhi police had arrested him on June 27 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets in 2018.