Supreme Court grants interim bail to Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (May 21, 2025) granted interim bail to Ashoka University Associate Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, but refused to stay the investigation against him for his social media posts on the Pahalgam terror attack, Operation Sindoor, and the sufferings caused by war.He was arrested by the Haryana Police on Sunday (May 18, 2025) after it filed two first information reports (FIRs) against him for his online posts.

- GNS News Agency

A Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant made it a point to clarify that the interim bail was given to “facilitate” the investigation. The court directed the Haryana Director-General of Police to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) within 24 hours of three senior, directly recruited IPS officers who did not hail from either Haryana or Delhi. The SIT would be led by an officer of the rank of Inspector-General. The other two investigators would be Superintendents of Police. One of the members would be a woman.Suspecting the academician of indulging in “dog whistling” through his social media posts, the court tasked the SIT with examining the language and checking the nuances of particular words used in the posts. The court said, prima facie, some of the words used by the Professor held a “dual meaning”. Justice Kant compared them to a “missile” seemingly shown as going in one direction but actually intended to travel