Two days after Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair walked out of Tihar Jail, the journalist said on Friday that he will continue to call out hate-mongers, the Deccan Herald reported.

“The first thing I will do is install Twitter [after getting a new phone and a SIM card] and tweet, debunk fake news,” he told the newspaper in an interview. “I will also call out hate-mongers.”

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Zubair in all the six cases filed against him in Uttar Pradesh. He left prison after 23 days.

Cases against him are related to satirical comments about television news anchors, allegedly hurting religious sentiments of the Hindu community and posting alleged inflammatory content about deities.

Another case was filed in Delhi in connection to a tweet that Zubair had posted in 2018. The journalist was granted bail in this case on July 15.

Here is a list of the cases that had been filed against Zubair.

Tweet on Nupur Sharma

On Friday, Zubair told the Deccan Herald that he had anticipated arrest after he posted a tweet on suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Muhammad. Sharma had made the disparaging remarks during a debate on the Times Now television channel on May 26.

“I definitely knew they would go after me,” he said. “But I didn’t know they would be so vindictive. I thought system utna bhi ganda nahi ho sakta [the system cannot be that corrupt].”

Zubair said that his tweet on Sharma was not meant to target her but to call out hate speech promoted by the mainstream media.

“There were channels which promoted her or did not stop her or object to what she was saying,” Zubair told the Deccan Herald. “Godi media was intentionally spreading fake news. It was a little worrying, a little disturbing. I wanted to expose that.”

“Godi media” is a term used to refer to media organisations that take a pro-government stance.

Arrest for four-year-old tweet

Zubair said he was expecting backlash for calling three Hindutva supremacists “hatemongers” in aMay 27 tweet.

“They had made up their mind to fix me but because they didn’t get anything against me, they dug out a tweet from four to five years ago,” he was quoted as saying, reported the Deccan Herald.

Zubair was referring to a tweet he posted in 2018, which showed an image of a hotel signboard repainted from “Honeymoon Hotel” to “Hanuman Hotel”. He was arrested on June 27 by the Delhi Police for this.

Zubair’s lawyer argued in court that the photos were screenshots taken from a 1983 Hindi movie named Kissi Se Na Kehna.

“That tweet was nothing about any religion,” Zubair told the Deccan Herald. “It was about a political party. They made it look like I was abusive toward Hindu gods and goddesses.”

‘Targeted because of my religion’

After his arrest, Zubair said that the Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations Unit asked him questions about the funding received by Alt News and not about the 2018 tweet.

“They might have filed an FIR about the tweet, but they were asking me all sorts of questions,” he told the newspaper. “It was clear they had made up their mind to frame me.”

Zubair said he was targeted by the police because of his identity and his religion. “I am also very vocal, they don’t like it,” he added.