The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday told Haryana Police not to expand the scope of its investigation in the probe on Ashoka University Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad.
"Do not try to expand the scope. SIT is free to form opinion. Do not go left and right," said a bench headed by Justice Surya Kant, while extending the associate professor's the interim bail.
Mahmudabad was arrested by Haryana Police earlier this month for a social media post on Operation Sindoor. An associate professor and the head of the political science department of Ashoka University, Mahmudabad had written on Facebook raising concerns about warmongering behaviour and performative patriotism post the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta said that the investigation report should be filed before the apex court before being filed in the Haryana district court which has jurisdiction.
Haryana Police had on May 18 arrested after it filed two first information reports (FIRs) against him for his Facebook posts. Mahmudabad was sent to judicial custody till May 20.
On May 21, the court granted interim bail to the professor, but refused to squash the FIRs against him,
A bench headed by Justice Surya Kant clarified that the interim bail was granted in order to “facilitate” the police’s investigation.
SC Had Ordered Haryana Police DG To Form SIT
The SC told the Haryana Director-General of Police to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) within 24 hours of the order. The SIT would be led by an officer of the rank of Inspector-General, and the other two officers in the investigation should be Superintendents of Police, while one of the members should be a woman, the apex court had said.
SC also added several conditions to the associate-professor’s interim bail including that he should not post online anything related to the case or India's military operation against Pakistan.
The apex court had also told Haryana police to restrict the scope of the SIT probe, saying the investigation should be limited to the two FIRs filed against the professor for his posts on Operation Sindoor.
"We direct that investigation of SIT shall be confined to contents of the 2 FIRs subject matter of these proceedings. The investigation report, before it is filed before jurisdictional court, be produced before this court. The interim protection to continue till further orders" a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta ordered.
What Do The FIRs Against Mahmudabad Say?
There are two FIRs against Mahmudabad; one is a complaint filed by the Haryana State Commission for Women chairperson Renu Bhatia, while the other was filed by Yogesh Jatheri, general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Yuva Morcha unit in Haryana.
"On the Commission chairperson's complaint, the FIR has been lodged against Professor Ali of Ashoka University under BNS sections 152 (acts endangering sovereignty or unity and integrity of India), 353 (statements conducing to public mischief), 79 (deliberate actions aimed at insulting the modesty of a woman) and 196 (1) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion)," police has told media.
During the hearing in SC, the top court also reprimanded the associate professor saying his post was a form of "dog whistling" and trying to gain "cheap publicity".
In the hearing on May 28, Mahmudabad’s lawyer Kapil Sibal told the court that the Special Investigation Team constituted by the Haryana government may expand its probe, reported Live Law.
Sibal also told the court that the police wanted access to the professor’s phone and laptop and other electronic devices he used to log online. In response, according to a report in Live law, Justice Kant said that the FIRs were already part of the record. “What is the need for devices?” the judge asked while telling the cops not to expand the scope of the investigation.
