Reprieve for Ashoka University professor

Faced with criminal prosecution, for his alleged controversial social media posts on Operation Sindoor, Ashoka University teacher Ali Khan Mahmudabad got a reprieve from the Supreme Court on Monday, which restrained the trial court from taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed by Haryana SIT and framing any charges against him.

The order came from a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Mahmudabad, said, "This court said that they shouldn't go beyond the scope of FIR but they went beyond that… They were just persecuting people in the country".

Terming the filing of the chargesheet as "most unfortunate", Sibal said Mahmudabad had been booked under Section 152 of BNS (Acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India), whose validity was under challenge.

The Bench asked Sibal to go through the chargesheet and prepare a chart of the alleged offences, saying it would consider the submissions on the next date of hearing.

It directed quashing of all proceedings related to the FIR, in which a closure report had been filed.

On behalf of the Haryana Police, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, said, "During the course of investigation, several materials were found, which disclose commission of offence and therefore a chargesheet was filed in another FIR."

The Supreme Court had, on May 21, granted interim bail to Mahmudabad and ordered an SIT probe led by an IGP rank officer into his alleged comments on Operation Sindoor.

The SIT informed the Bench that in one of the two FIRs it had filed a closure report whereas in the other, a chargesheet was filed on August 22 considering some offences were attracted.

Taking strong exception to the Haryana Police SIT seizing electronic gadgets, including cell phones of Mahmudabad, the Supreme Court, on July 16, said the SIT “misdirected itself”.