But when he responded to the summons, police arrested him over a separate case, she said.

Kaur showed CNN a police complaint in which a Twitter user accused Zubair of insulting Hindus on the platform in 2018, in a post about the renaming of a hotel after a Hindu god.

She accused the authorities of not following proper procedure and of giving Zubair no notice.

Malhotra, the deputy commissioner, did not respond to CNN's questions about whether police had followed proper procedure during the arrest.

Earlier this month, Zubair had criticized the now suspended national spokesperson for the BJP, Nupur Sharma, for making derogatory comments about Islam's Prophet Mohammed — remarks that had set off a diplomatic row.

At least 15 Muslim-majority nations condemned Sharma's remarks, several of them summoning India's ambassadors and describing the comments as "Islamophobic."

Among Zubair's recent social media posts are videos he claims show Hindu extremists giving hate-speeches against Islam, a minority religion in India where nearly 80% of people are Hindu.