Sonepat court sends Ashoka University prof Ali Khan Mahmudabad to judicial custody

A Sonepat court on Tuesday remanded Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad to judicial custody in the case registered by Haryana Police over his Facebook post on ‘Operation Sindoor’..Mahmudabad had been arrested on Sunday from Delhi and remanded to two-day police custody.Today, he was produced before Judicial Magistrate Azad Singh. According to the sources present in the remand hearing, the police asked for custody of seven more days. However, the judge rejected the request and instead remanded Khan to judicial custody. The development was confirmed to Bar and Bench by his counsel Kapil Dev Balyan.A petition challenging his arrest is likely to be heard by the Supreme Court this week. His arrest has led to an outcry with many describing the police action as an assault on free speech. .Operation Sindoor is the name given to India's cross-border military response against Pakistan, following the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22. In a Facebook post, Mahmudabad wrote that with Operation Sindoor, India had sent a message to Pakistan that, "if you don’t deal with your terrorism problem then we will!" He had also criticised those blindly advocating war, stating, "The loss of civilian life is tragic on both sides and is the main reason why war should be avoided. There are those who are mindlessly advocating for a war but they have never seen one let alone lived in or visited a conflict zone ...".He also asked right-wing commentators praising Colonel Sofiya Qureshi - who led the media briefing on Operation Sindoor - to also speak up for victims of mob lynchings and arbitrary demolitions of properties.“The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings is important but optics must translate to reality on the ground otherwise it’s just hypocrisy. When a prominent Muslim politician said “Pakistan Murdabad” and was trolled by Pakistanis for doing so- Indian right wing commentators defended him by saying “he is our mulla.” Of course this is funny but it also points to just how deep communalism has managed to infect the Indian body politic,” he had said in the post..Mahmudabad was then summoned by Haryana State Commission For Women. The Commission Chairperson Renu Bhatia has claimed that the remarks amount to “disparagement of women in uniform, including Col. Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh, and undermining their role as professional officers in the Indian Armed Forces”.In a public statement posted on X, Mahmudabad in response said there was nothing even remotely misogynistic in his comments.“I have used my academic training and public voice to advocate for peace due to the high cost of war. At the same time I have analysed and commented on the manner in which "care has been taken by the Indian armed forces to not target military or civilian installations or infrastructure so that there is no unnecessary escalation." This reflects a clear appreciation of the Indian military's measured and proportional approach and indeed I have condemned the use of terrorists by the Pakistani military to destabilise the region. In fact in my analysis I have shown that this puts "the onus on the Pakistani military to make sure it cannot hide any longer behind terrorists and non-state actors." I further added that the Pak military has used these tactics "to destabilise the region for far too long." Animated by a profound moral commitment to minimising the human cost of armed conflict, my statements solely express concern over the rhetorical excesses and reckless warmongering exhibited by certain sections of the civilian public,” he explained..However, Bhatia’s claim led to registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Mahmudabad, leading to his arrest. A second FIR also stands registered against him on a complaint made by Yogesh Jatheri, the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and sarpanch of Jatheri village. Mahmudabad is already in judicial custody in the second case.