Police in the Indian capital have arrested a leading Muslim journalist on charges of hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets.

Mohammed Zubair is the co-founder of Alt News, a popular fact-checking website that has been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party government.

Zubair's recent tweets highlighting the comments of BJP spokespersons allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad prompted many Muslim countries to lodge protest and led to countrywide demonstrations.

Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha said that his colleague was called by Delhi Police for questioning in a different case and arrested "in this new case instead" on Monday night.

"No FIR copy is being given to us despite repeated requests," Sinha tweeted.

India's opposition has condemned Zubair's arrest. "Arresting one voice of truth will only give rise to a thousand more," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Alt News was founded in 2017.