Supreme Court extends interim bail granted to Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, warns SIT against expanding scope of probe

The top court has sought a status report from the SIT, constituted to conduct investigation in the case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended the interim bail granted to Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad and directed the special investigation team (SIT), constituted to conduct investigation in the case, to submit a status report, news agency PTI reported.

The top court told Mahmudabad -- who has been accused of making contentious social media posts on India's Operation Sindoor -- that there was no impediment on his right to speech and expression, but he can’t post anything online with respect to the cases against him.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta also ordered that the probe against Khan by the SIT shall be restricted only to the FIRs registered against him with respect to the Facebook post. The court said the scope of the probe shall not be expanded to include other areas.

"We order that investigation shall be confined to the two FIRs. The investigation report to be produced before this court. Let interim protection be extended," the order said, according to a report by Bar and Bench. It asked Haryana police to not go "left and right" in the probe.

The bench also asked the Haryana police to apprise it about their response to the NHRC notice on registration of FIR against the professor.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), on May 21, took "suo motu cognisance" of a media report in connection with the arrest. The rights panel has noted that "the report, which contains a gist of the allegations based on which he has been arrested, discloses, prima facie, that the human rights and liberty of the said professor have been violated".

On May 21, the top court granted interim bail to the professor but refused to stay the investigation against him.

The professor was arrested on May 18 after two FIRs were registered against him.