A court in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri has sent Alt News Co-founder Mohammad Zubair to 14-day judicial custody in connection with a case lodged against him for allegedly promoting enmity.

Zubair was produced in the court of the Mohammadi Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate through video conferencing, said Assistant Prosecuting Officer Avadhesh Yadav.

He said that the prosecution had sought police custody, a plea countered by the Zubair's counsel. He added that the next hearing on the plea for his police custody has now been fixed for July 13.

The Lakhimpur Kheri Police had served a warrant on Zubair to appear in the court in connection with an FIR lodged against him for promoting enmity in 2021.

The warrant was served shortly after the Supreme Court on Friday granted Zubair an interim bail in a case registered in UP's Sitapur for hurting religious sentiments.

The apex court on Friday granted five-day interim bail to Zubair in connection with an FIR lodged against him in Sitapur district. The court clarified that the investigation in the case is not being halted and the bail only related to Sitapur case, which meant Zubair would remain in custody as per the order of a Delhi court in another case.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Arun Kumar Singh had told PTI on Saturday, "The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Mohammadi in Kheri district has issued the warrant against Mohd Zubair, which was served by Kheri police on Friday." ?

Mohammadi police station incharge Ambar Singh had told PTI that the case against Zubair was lodged on November 25 by Ashish Katiyar, a reporter for a private news channel. ?

He said, "In his complaint, Katiyar had accused Zubair of misleading people through his tweet about his channel."

(With PTI inputs)