Ashoka University associate professor remanded in 2-day police custody

Ashoka University’s head of the political science department, Ali Khan Mahmudabad, was produced before a Haryana court on Sunday (May 18) evening and remanded in police custody for two days in a case registered on the complaint from the Haryana State Commission for Women late Saturday night.

Mahmudabad was arrested on Sunday after two FIRs were lodged on stringent charges, including endangering sovereignty and integrity, for his social media posts related to Operation Sindoor, police and his lawyer said.

Mahmudabad’s lawyer, Kapil Balyan, has refuted the charges against him and said the remarks were within the bounds of academic and democratic discourse. Balyan said the defence argued before the court that Mahmudabad is a nationalist and a patriot and his social media post has been wrongly interpreted.

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The arrest came days after the Commission sent a notice to him questioning his remarks, though Mahmudabad had maintained that they were “misunderstood” and asserted that he had exercised his fundamental right to freedom of speech.

All sections non-bailable

Deputy Commissioner of Police Narender Kadyan said two FIRs were lodged at the Rai police station in Sonipat — one based on a complaint from the chairperson of Haryana State Commission for Women, Renu Bhatia, and the other on the complaint of a village sarpanch.

Balyan claimed the sarpanch who lodged the complaint “is also associated with state BJP Yuva Morcha”. “The case was lodged on Saturday and the next morning, the professor was arrested from Delhi. No notice was given to him and he was taken into custody by police,” the lawyer said.

Also read: Ashoka University faculty seeks immediate release of arrested teacher

Police said the case has been lodged on sarpanch’s complaint under BNS sections 152, 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 197 (imputations, assertions, prejudicial to national integration) and 299 (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).

All these sections are non-bailable.

(With agency inputs)