Watch: How Mohammed Zubair Became Target of a Smear Campaign by Hindutva Outfits

The arrest of Mohammed Zubair, journalist and co-founder of Alt News, is the culmination of a years-long campaign by a network of anonymous and inauthentic accounts linked to Vikash Ahir, state president of the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) and co-convenor of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in Gujarat, an investigation carried out by The Wire has established.

Zubair was arrested on June 27 by the Delhi Police in connection with an alleged objectionable tweet he had posted in 2018, which is said to have hurt religious sentiments. Almost simultaneously, he was produced at a court in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur on Monday, July 4, in connection with another first information report (FIR) registered against him for calling hardline Hindutva leaders "hatemongers".

The Alt News co-founder has been in the cross hairs of the Hindutva brigade for some time now, for he has been launching scathing attacks online against communal issues being raked up by Hindu fundamentalist outfits, which enjoy the patronage of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In this video, Deepak Goswami is in conversation with Devesh Kumar and Naomi Barton, who carried out the investigation by The Wire to expose the network that has been targeting Zubair for years.

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