The Delhi High Court on Monday disposed of a petition by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair seeking the release of his electronic devices seized by the Delhi Police in 2022, reported Bar and Bench.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma asked Zubair to approach a trial court for the relief.

The case pertains to a 2018 social media post, in which Zubair shared a still from a 1983 Hindi movie of a signboard being repainted from “Honeymoon Hotel” to “Hanuman Hotel”. An anonymous user on social media platform X, then Twitter, with the handle @balajikijaiin alleged that the tweet hurt Hindu sentiments.

The fact-checker was arrested in June 2022 by a cyber unit of the Delhi Police on charges of hurting religious sentiments. On July 15, 2022, a Delhi court granted him bail, saying that “free speech is the proper foundation of a democratic society”.

The Delhi Police had claimed that Zubair told them the laptop and mobile phone used by him for sharing the 2018 post was at his home in Bengaluru, which led them to raid his house and recover the devices, two invoices and a hard disk on June 30, 2022.

However, Zubair has claimed that he had not made any disclosure statement to the investigating officer or any other police official. He said he told the police that he had lost the mobile phone used to share the post.

“Further, the tweet in question clearly states that it was posted from an Android device [mobile phone], so it has no connection to any laptop,” Zubair had told the Delhi High Court. “The said search and seizure from my residence was thus carried out with malafide reasons extraneous to the need for investigation.”

He had moved the High Court seeking the release of any devices beyond the scope of the first information report.

On Monday, Sharma said it was unclear which device or document, allegedly seized by Delhi Police, was beyond the allegations in the case.

“During arguments it was observed that the counsel for petitioner is referring to the mobile phone of the petitioner,” the court said. “In this regard, he may move appropriate application before the concerned area magistrate who will deal with it as per law.”