- Monday, May 05, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
DEEPAK Gupta, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India, on Tuesday (5) questioned the impartiality of the Delhi Police saying the latter arrests journalist Mohammed Zubair for allegedly hurting religious sentiments but suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Nupur Sharma was roaming free despite making controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad which led to a massive backlash, both in India and abroad.
In an interview to legal news portal Live Law, Gupta, who served as a judge in the top court between 2017 and 2020, said, “If she [Sharma] could say that…which had a much bigger propensity to incite violence… but she is not arrested, Zubair is…Then some questions do arise on the fairness of the police.”
The veteran also said that something was missing in the way the Alt News co-founder was arrested.
When Zubair is arrested and #NupurSharma is not arrested, then questions do arise about the fairness of the Delhi police investigation : Justice Deepak Gupta.#MuhammedZubair #AltNews #DelhiPolice pic.twitter.com/UQPpKdTTbI
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) July 5, 2022
While Sharma is yet to appear before the police for interrogation even though several first-information reports (FIRs) have been filed against her in many states of the country over her controversial remarks made on a live television debate in May, Zubair was arrested by the police on June 27 based on a tweet that he had posted more than four years ago.
The FIR against Zubair was based on a complaint by Arun Kumar, a Delhi Police sub-inspector, who said he had come across the March 2018 tweet posted by Zubair after a handle named Hanuman Bhakti raised objections.
The handle had objected to Zubair’s tweet which showed a hotel signboard with the name “Honeymoon Hotel” repainted to ‘Hanuman Hotel’.
The journalist’s lawyer has argued in court that the photo is a screenshot taken from a 1983 Hindi movie ‘Kissi Se Na Kehna’.
Before 2014 : Honeymoon Hotel
After 2014 : Hanuman Hotel. #SanskaariHotel pic.twitter.com/1ri5i3IXy8— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 23, 2018
On Tuesday, Gupta said nobody had complained about the movie for four decades.
“How was it [the tweet] reported based on one anonymous complaint?” he asked.
The handle that complained about Zubair’s tweet had posted only one message on the microblogging site till June 27 evening and only three followers.
Gupta was also shocked by the fact that the police started their investigation on the basis of a complaint by an anonymous account.
“It is difficult to lodge complaints. In Supreme Court, we see cases in which women have complained about rape and their case has not been registered,” he said.
The retired judge also said that neither the police nor a magistrate can authorise a fishing inquiry. A fishing inquiry refers to asking questions that are not connected to a case’s subject matter.
Besides Gupta, several current and former members of the judiciary also denounced the Zubair incident.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan Lokur said it was “difficult for our criminal justice system to sink lower than this”, The Wire reported on Sunday (3).
He was appalled by a cop leaking the Delhi court’s order about Zubair’s 14-day judicial custody on Sunday, hours before it was announced by the judges.
