Thread by @Iyervval

25 are citing a Bangalore organisation of no known providence. They don’t have a website - just a Wordpress blog and their “about us” section is completely devoid of any names or bona fides. This is curious because why would two established papers run content from an anonymised

26 organisation unless this news item has been specifically planted. It’s not like their correspondents just trawl and give headlines to anonymous types everyday. Who directed Hindu & Telegraph to this Wordpress blog? Who on the editorial team approved a news item of doubtful

27 provenance? Who taught Zubair how to avoid camera angles and scrub any evidence of his past? How is it that not even a single person can attest to his existence before? His twitter activity was full swing till 13th June, then suddenly dropped off. Why? What happened on that

28 date? These are all very significant questions that nobody in “journalism of courage” “media watchkeeper” or “investigative journalism” wants to touch even with a barge pole. Why?

29 isn’t it surprising, he and his supporters claim that they received death threats and didn’t want to be another Gauri Lankesh. But apparently he never heard of Kamlesh Tiwari? This alone shows he knew the consequences of explicitly stating Nupur Sharma committed blasphemy

30 sub thread here on the “lawyers” “technology leaders” “fact checkers” and “journalists” who retweeted Pratik Sinha’s complete cluelessness on the laws of evidence. Worst of all one is Zubair’s lawyer and several are lawyers

https://twitter.com/Iyervval/status/1542547802093256705

31. Good morning folks!!! The noose is closing in rapidly. Registrar of Companies Ahmadabad has sent notice to AltNews for several and severe violations of the company act. Congrats @thehawkeyex who has highlighted their financial misdeeds for months now.

https://twitter.com/thehawkeyex/status/1542587185328979969

.32 UPDATE: several sources telling me Zubair has walked right into the police trap & reformatted his laptop. This is unconfirmed news, but if true he has not only cooked his own goose but also put his family members who were custodians of his computer in serious jeopardy

33 some of these same sources telling me that the computer will be handed over to forensics. Separately it seems police also have intercepted communications exchanged between Zubair & the office of a major politician who was directing his actions. Also comms with several major

34 journalists. I am told that these communications apparently show deliberate intent to inflame situations on several occasions spanning several years & directions on how exactly to spin a situation and what not to say. Several people are going to get into some serious trouble.

35 as predicted 2 days back on this thread: Destruction of Evidence & Foreign Currency violations have been added today - he’s probably not going to come out of jail for a while now

https://twitter.com/amankayamhai_/status/1543098151686483968

36 criminal conspiracy added. Usually I wouldn’t trust the police to do this right, but after looking at the superb investigation they ran on the Delhi Riots case, & how their evidence planting got exposed in the Bhima Koregaon case we can be optimistic

37 the provisions of 120B “criminal conspiracy” call for punishment equal to that stipulated for the crimes they wanted to frame Nupur Sharma for
295A 3yrs
153 6mo
298 1yr
505 5yrs
In addition to 9 years for 204, Zubair if convicted is looking at total 15-18 years

38 Zubair thought he was too smart by half. Claiming he’d lost his phone, but he changes SIM card the very next day he received police notice 24th June. The tower triangulation will be key - if new SIM insertion was done in same location within minutes, it will prove he had

39 purchased the new phone prior to “losing” his old phone. Purchase record will also indict. He will also have to find a more cogent argument for reformatting. Remember proving evidence destruction isn’t a single smoking gun, it is a pattern of behaviour adduced from facts.

40 thanks to @metanarrativee & @KhalidBaig85 for pointing this out - it wasn’t a new phone - just a different one - and the triangulation of when the SIM swapped phones is basic easy to collect data. Indeed if the SIM is the same it means he took it out & couldn’t have “lost” it

41 if it is a new SIM but lit up on the network minutes after the old sim went silent, it still means it was preplanned. This is the problem when you and your lawyer think you’re too smart by half. Is Vrinda trying to help him or scuttle him?

42 as I suspected, the police have learnt very well from the Bhima koregaon case that they will be held to digital forensic scrutiny. They will take steps to ensure nothing is messed up this time.

https://twitter.com/LiveLawIndia/status/1543129996243660800

43 Again as predicted “someone will slip up or crack” - Vrinda Grover has thrown Pratik Sinha and his mother Nirjhari to the wolves. Essentially Zubair through his lawyer has blamed those two for the funds received from Pakistan and Syria in contravention of the FCRA

https://twitter.com/thehawkeyex/status/1543136958641106944

44 After Vrinda Grocer’s serious faux pas today, it seems its only a matter of time before the two other directors of Pravda (Pratik Sinha & his mother Nirjhari Sinha) are picked up by police. I’m hearing the FCRA evidence is ready in that case

https://twitter.com/thehawkeyex/status/1543145764884729856

45 here @free_thinker admits to @pradip103 that for @AltNews to accept foreign funding would be illegal and would lead to the jailing of him, his mother & Zubair. Notice the sheer vacuousness of his followers and a professional Congress “spokesperson”

https://twitter.com/free_thinker/status/1131217016654663680

46 Another important angle here. The FCRA net will likely expand to organisations like Miles to Smiles and its founder Aasif Mujtaba. They were settling Rohingya illegal migrants and Zubair promoted them heavily

https://twitter.com/thehawkeyex/status/1543175401505034240?s=21&t=s6k_3PMHIGDu4cg6tqJ1zw

47 Whatever you do, beware Rana Safvi’s sadqas (benedictions). Clearly they have the opposite effect. Do note she was gleefully cheering him, the same day the diplomatic storm broke - they engineered and celebrated this

https://twitter.com/iamrana/status/1533682951627583490?t=grHPgl8X98aEQRRNj8ta5g&s=19

48 I also hope @dir_ed and @DelhiPolice have seen this thread by @AgentVinod03 - he has listed out the significant financial questions surrounding this NGO that Zubair was promoting. Does the financial trail lead here?

https://twitter.com/agentvinod03/status/1494569501610102785

49 also to note, @LogicallyAI was the prime driver of Wire’s expose attempting to deflect & shield Zubair. To note @PMOIndia @dir_ed this is the same company funding Rahul Gandhi’s latest controversial UK speech. Foreign funded Logical claims it has several government contracts

50 I have done a sub thread here of the extremely dubious claims of FCRA violating AltNews’ collaborators @LogicallyAI and it’s CEO @Lyric_Jain here. Their past is just as shady, foreign funded and involved in similar information warfare operations like AltNews.

https://twitter.com/Iyervval/status/1524620795762253824

51 The question is how did @Razorpay enable foreign donations without the requisite FCRA clearance @dir_ed? Is this a systemic problem or did @AltNews directors forge documents? Maybe best left to @harshilmathur to answer this question.

https://twitter.com/rajgopal88/status/1543221908451123200

52 it is common for judges to communicate orders to the police before everybody else during a media circus. I for example was taken to jail and it took my lawyer @TweetinderKaul over 1 hour to find out I’d been sent to judicial custody. However the judge is clearly upset

53 given the sheer volume of evidence and gravity of charges against him - totalling something like 20 years in jail & given his destruction of evidence, expect many more extensions of judicial custody. After the Suryakant Pardiwala fiasco yesterday, SC may also not grant bail

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1543226966605606914

54 looks like Zubair has been lying about his age to his friends. Woke madhouse Quint says he’s 38, Caste crazed hate house TNM claims he’s 40, but the Jihadi fundamentalist himself claims he is 27, has 2 wives (unclear if one is divorced) and 3 kids.

https://twitter.com/crimemasterv2/status/1543477835049738241