The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a trial against Ashoka University faculty member Ali Khan Mahmudabad over his alleged objectionable Facebook post on Operation Sindoor.
A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi ordered that no charges be framed against Mahmudabad. It also ordered that the lower court shall not take cognisance of the chargesheet filed against him.
The directions were passed after the counsel for the Centre informed the court that there were two FIRs against Mahmudabad. The counsel said that while a closure report has been filed in one case, in the other case a charge sheet has been filed because the offences were made out.
Appearing on behalf of Mahmudabad, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the development was unfortunate. He said Mahmudabad was being wrongly persecuted.
At the last hearing, the court had questioned the special investigation team (SIT) set up to examine Facebook posts of Mahmudabad on “misdirecting itself”. The bench had verbally observed that the SIT was “unnecessarily expanding the scope” of its probe.
The bench had reiterated that the SIT must confine its investigation to the two FIRs already filed against Mahmudabad for his two “objectionable” posts.
