Ashoka University professor’s arrest: SC agrees to hear plea against police action

The Supreme Court on Monday accepted a request for an early hearing of a petition by Ashoka University Associate Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, who was arrested a day earlier for his comments about the press briefings on Operation Sindoor, Live Law reported.

Advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the case before a bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih. Sibal told the court that cases were filed against the professor for “an entirely patriotic statement” on the operation by the Indian armed forces.

Gavai has agreed to list the matter on Tuesday or Wednesday, Live Law reported.

Two cases have been filed against Mahmudabad for his comments about the media briefings on the Indian military operation against terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir initiated in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam attack.

One case was filed against the Ashoka University associate professor based on a complaint by Yogesh Jatheri, general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yuva Morcha unit in Haryana. The second case was filed on the basis of a complaint by Renu Bhatia, the chairperson of the Haryana State Women’s Commission.

Mahmudabad faces charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, making assertions likely to cause disharmony, acts endangering national sovereignty and words or gestures intended to...

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