<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">India's top court granted bail on Friday to a Muslim journalist accused of insulting Hindu religious leaders on Twitter, after his arrest last month raised concerns over media freedom.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>But Mohammed Zubair, who co-founded fact-checking website Alt News and regularly tweets on the increasing marginalisation of India's Muslim minority, will remain in police custody due to another complaint filed in the capital New Delhi.</div><div><br></div><div>A complaint filed in June in the Sitapur district of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh alleged that Zubair had hurt religious sentiments by describing a group of Hindu religious leaders as "hate mongers", according to a court document.</div><div><br></div><div>Ruling on the Sitapur complaint, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court granted Zubair five days bail, and also ordered him to refrain from tweeting and tampering with any electronic evidence.</div><div><br></div><div>Zubair was initially arrested based on a complaint from a Twitter account that said he insulted Hindus in a 2018 post commenting on the renaming of a hotel after the Hindu monkey god Hanuman.</div><div><br></div><div>Human rights group say that Indian authorities are increasingly picking on journalists and online critics, a charge that government officials deny. -Reuters</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/TR</div>