New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Ashoka University Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad over his controversial post on Operation Sindoor but refused to stay the investigation into the case. The court said We direct the petitioner be released on interim bail. Having regard to the contents of two alleged offending online posts, we are satisfied that no case for staying the investigation is made out.
The court also directed the Haryana top cop to constitute within 24 hours a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising senior IPS officers for a further probe. However, the court said the officers should not be from Haryana or Delhi and one should be a woman. “To understand the complexity and for proper appreciation of the language used in the post, we direct DGP Haryana to constitute a SIT comprising three IPS officers who do not belong to Haryana or Delhi,” the bench further said.
He also cannot make any remarks in connection to the Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent hostilities between India and Pakistan. The court also ordered the professor to surrender his passport. Mahmudabad was arrested on May 18 and was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Haryana court on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court, however, didn’t mince any words while pulling up the professor, saying his remarks amount to “dog-whistling” and he should have used “neutral and respectful” language. “The entire projection is that he is anti-war, saying families of Army people, civilians in border areas suffer. But some words have double meanings also,” the court said.
The court said while everyone had freedom of speech, such occasions (during India-Pakistan tensions) should not be used to garner publicity. “Is it the time to talk about all of this? The country is already going through all this… monsters came and attacked our people. We have to be united. Why to get cheap popularity on these occasions,” the court said.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the professor, told the court that the petitioner’s wife was nine months pregnant. The Additional Solicitor General pointed out that Mahmudabad’s post was not as innocent as projected by Sibal. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took suo motu cognisance of the arrest of the professor, saying his rights and liberty were violated. Issuing a notice to the Haryana DGP, the NHRC sought a detailed report within a week.
“The commission has noted that a news report, which contains a gist of the allegations on the basis of which he has been arrested, discloses, prima facie, that the human rights and liberty of the said professor have been violated,” the statement said.