Zubair Ahmed, a journalist working in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, has been arrested allegedly for a tweet asking why a family was put under quarantine for speaking over phone to a COVID-19 patient. Zubair in a tweet had asked, “Can someone explain why families are placed under home quarantine for speaking over phone with Covid patients?” (Update: Zubair was granted bail by a court on Tuesday afternoon.)

Zubair’s tweet was based on a news report that said that four members of a family in Haddo, a town in Andaman, were forced to remain in home quarantine after one of them called up a relative who had tested positive for coronavirus over the phone, to ask about his well-being. The report was published in Andaman Chronicle on April 26. While Zubair did not mention the report, he raised the issue on Twitter on April 27. He was arrested around 7 pm on the same day (Monday).

Andaman Chronicle editor-in-chief Denis Giles told TNM that four people from Bambooflat police station reached Zubair’s home and told him he had been summoned to the Aberdeen police station as the Superintendent of Police there wanted to question him about his tweet. Zubair formerly worked as an associate editor with the Andaman Chronicle and now works as a freelance journalist.