SC grants interim bail to Ashoka University Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, calls his post on Op Sindoor ‘dog whistling’

Granting Mahmudabad the interim relief, the court also restrained him from making any online posts or writing any article or deliver speech on the issue which is the subject matter of the case, or making any comment on the terrorist attack recently faced by India which was a terrorist attack on Indian soil or India’s counter response to it.

“Issue notice. Having regard to contents of two alleged offending online posts which led to Fir against petitioner, we are satisfied that no case of staying the investigation is made out. However, to understand the complexity and for proper appreciation of the language used in the post, we direct DGP Haryana to constitute a SIT comprising of three IPS officers who do not belong to Haryana or Delhi. SIT shall be headed by inspector general of police and one of the members shall be a women officer,” the court said in its order.

Appearing for Mahmudabad, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal referred to the post on his Facebook and Instagram pages, and said, “This is a highly patriotic statement.” Sibal said that the post talks about “right-wing commentators applauding Colonel Sofiya Qureshi” and adds that they must equally express concern for victims of mob lynching, bulldozing, etc.

Hearing this, Justice Surya Kant said that while the professor is giving an opinion on the effects of war on civilians, Army personnel, etc., “Now he is turning to politics…So after commenting about war, he turned to politics!”

Stating that while everyone has a right to express themselves, Justice Surya Kant asked if this was the right time to speak on the issue. “Everybody has a right to express free speech. But is it the time to talk of this much communal..? The country has faced a big challenge. Monsters came all the way and attacked our innocents. We were staying united. But at this juncture, why to gain cheap popularity on this occasion?” the judge asked.

Justice Surya Kant said that “everybody talks about rights…as if the country for the last 75 years was distributing rights”.

To Sibal’s defence of the comments, “This is what we call in the law – dog whistling.”

Sibal contended that Mahmudabad did not have any “criminal intent”. But Justice Surya Kant said that he could have conveyed his feelings in simple language without hurting others.

Mahmudabad was arrested on May 18, days after the Haryana State Commission for Women issued a show-cause notice to him over his remarks allegedly disparaging women officers in the Indian armed forces.

Later, two FIRs were lodged against him: one, based on a complaint by Renu Bhatia, chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women, and another by Yogesh Jatheri, Jatheri village sarpanch, who is also the general secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha in Haryana.