Ex-TISS student booked for raising slogans for Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam moves Bombay HC for anticipatory bail

A former Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) student has moved the Bombay High Court seeking anticipatory bail in a case involving allegations that he raised inflammatory slogans, including in the name of UAPA-accused jailed activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, at an unauthorised campus event [Kamakhya Das v. State of Maharashtra & Ors.].

The slogans were allegedly raised at a gathering convened to commemorate the first death anniversary of late Delhi University professor GN Saibaba.

A Mumbai sessions court recently rejected the anticipatory bail filed by Kamakhya Das - one of those accused in the case - prompting him to approach the High Court for relief.

After the plea was mentioned for urgent hearing, Justice Prafulla Khubalkar has agreed to hear the matter tomorrow.

The anticipatory bail application comes days after a Mumbai sessions court rejected Das' plea.

The first information report (FIR) in the case was registered at Trombay police station and later transferred to the Crime Branch CID.

The FIR alleges that 10–12 students assembled without permission near a hostel to pay homage to GN Saibaba by lighting candles, reading poems, and raising inflammatory slogans.

However, Das has contended that no student present raised any such slogans.

“That the complaint being based on untrue events and allegations, is completely unreliable, and therefore the grave allegations and charges made out against the Applicant, such as that of unlawful assembly, and promotion enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, etc., are not made out all,” the application states.

The sessions court had observed that paying tribute to Saibaba was not illegal per se since the Bombay High Court acquitted him before his death in a Maoist links case.

The court proceeded to grant seven students accused in the case anticipatory bail, holding the allegations against them were limited and their custodial interrogation was not necessary.

However, it denied similar relief to Das and one more accused, on finding that the allegations against them stood on a different footing.

Slogans seeking the release of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam at the camus event were among the reasons cited to reject Das' plea.

The court also noted that books published by members of the CPI (Maoist) were found on Das' devices, and that information was deleted. The prosecution had further alleged non-cooperation on his part. The court concluded that custodial interrogation was necessary to ascertain Das' intent.  

Das has now challenged this ruling before the High Court. In the plea filed through advocates Vijay Hiremath and Rishika Agarwal, the 24-year-old Development Studies graduate maintained his innocence.

He invoked his constitutional right to read books of any ideology.

“Mere possession of such ideology is not a criminal offence,” the plea stated. 

It further said,

“The assumption of him having participated in the alleged gathering on 12.20.2025 as an attempt of implementing his alleged ideology of Mao ism on other students of the institute is complete bogus and cannot be upheld solely on the fact of him having downloaded certain unbanned literature.”

He added that as a critical student of social sciences, he has read and kept himself informed on social as well as political issues very broadly. 

“Having downloaded certain literature, does not make Das an author of the same, nor does it instigate a prima facie case of him being affiliated with a banned organization or prone to such an organisation’s ideology,” Das said. 

He emphasised that lacking university permission for a reading circle event cannot turn a peaceful gathering into an “unlawful assembly."

He also asserted that he has fully co-operated with the investigation, undergoing 12 to 15 hours of questioning over ten months. This according to him was enough to not warrant custodial interrogation.