‘Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad’s rights seem to have been violated’: NHRC issues notice to Haryana DGP

CHANDIGARH: NHRC on Wednesday issued a notice to Haryana director general of police, asking for a detailed report within one week on Ali Khan Mahmudabad's arrest and remand to custody. The commission said it had taken "suo motu cognisance" of a media report on the professor's arrest for his allegedly offensive posts related to Operation Sindoor. NHRC noted that the media report discloses "prima facie, that the human rights and liberty of the professor had been violated". Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad but refused to stay the FIR and ordered the Haryana DGP to constitute an SIT of IPS officers to probe the bona fides of his allegedly objectionable statement made during Operation Sindoor.Applying the standards of scrutiny enforced in the case of MP minister Vijay Shah who made "crass comments" against Col Sofiya Qureshi, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh perused Mahmudabad's statements and said, "Everyone has a right to express opinion. But was that the right time to say what he did? When the country was facing a challenge, why make statements on communal lines? Why is he trying to get cheap publicity in such a situation?"The bench said "no case for stay of investigation is made out" and barred the petitioner from making any statement on Op Sindoor or related issues. The bench found that while commenting on Indo-Pak hostilities and Pakistan-backed terror activities, Mahmudabad had talked about 'mob lynching' and 'bulldozer justice'.