The Supreme Court on Wednesday remarked that the probe team looking into two social media by professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad was apparently “misdirecting itself”. It added that since Mahmudabad had cooperated with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and surrendered his devices, he need not be summoned again.
"You don't require him (Mahmudabad), you require a dictionary," Justice Surya Kant said, according to news agency ANI.
Mahmudabad, associate professor and head of the political science department at Ashoka University in Haryana's Sonipat, got interim bail on May 21 after his arrest by the state police on May 18 over two Facebook posts related to Operation Sindoor.
On Wednesday, the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi set a four-week deadline for the investigation team, which the SC had formed to probe the two social media posts.
The court also explained that its bail conditions allowed the professor to write articles and opinions online, except on matters that are sub judice.
From the SIT, it enquired why it was expanding its scope beyond the two posts, though, and why it needed his gadgets at all.
"We are asking why the SIT is, on the face of it, misdirecting itself. They were supposed to examine the contents of the posts," Justice Kant told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who was representing the state.
‘Why take gadgets, ask about foreign trips?’
{{/usCountry}}"We are asking why the SIT is, on the face of it, misdirecting itself. They were supposed to examine the contents of the posts," Justice Kant told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who was representing the state.
‘Why take gadgets, ask about foreign trips?’
{{/usCountry}}The court's remarks came after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Mahmudabad, told the bench that the SIT had not only seized his devices but was questioning him over his foreign trips of the last 10 years. He has been summoned four times by the SIT, Sibal said.
Sibal said that by its May 28 order, the top court had directed the SIT to confine its probe to the contents of the social media posts.
The bench thus noted that Mahmudabad has cooperated with the investigation and surrendered his devices; therefore, he should not be summoned again.
Mahmudabad is charged with, among other things, endangering India's sovereignty, unity and integrity for his comments on Operation Sindoor.
The State Women's Commission had earlier termed Mahmudabad's social media comments as disparaging toward women officers in the Indian Armed Forces and said it also promoted communal disharmony.
Mahmudabad clarified that his comments had been completely misunderstood.