New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Ashoka University Professor Ali KhanMahmudabad over his controversial post on Operation Sindoor but refused to stay the investigation into the case. A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice NK Singh blasted the professor for the timing of his remarks, calling it “dog whistling” and an attempt to get “cheap publicity”. “We direct the petitioner be released on interim bail… In 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 said.
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.
The court also imposed certain conditions on Mahmudabad, barring the professor from posting or making any speech on the case. 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. His post was perceived as critical of the military and disrespectful to the women officers, Colonel Sofia Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, who led the media briefings on Operation Sindoor.
