Haryana Police on Wednesday told a judicial magistrate of Sonepat court that it needed seven days custody of Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad to probe his foreign visits. .Khan has been arrested by the police over a Facebook post on ‘Operation Sindoor’ and is currently in judicial custody. The police's request for seven days custody of Khan was turned down by the court yesterday.In the grounds for the custody, the police told the court that Khan has made a "disclosure" that he has visited 14 countries and "his record of the visits is to be obtained."The prosecution said that Khan's passport is to be recovered from Lucknow to ascertain his foreign visits and therefore, police remand for seven days is required.It was also submitted that his mobile phone and laptop have been sent to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Panchkula and a report is yet to be received. The police are also looking into the call details of the academic and his wife's bank accounts. .In response, Khan told the court that he is a scholar of Cambridge University and has many friends in foreign countries. "Therefore, it cannot be presumed that he has any links with some anti-national elements," his counsel Kapil Dev Balyan told the court. It was also submitted that bank details of his wife have already been obtained by the police. Khan's counsel also said that he will surrender his passport by Wednesday..Considering the submissions and looking at the provisions of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Judicial Magistrate Azad Singh dismissed the request for Khan's police custody at this stage. "Considering the peculiar facts and circumstances, this Court is of the considered view that since the requisite details are yet to be received by Investigating Agency and police custody now can be sought in first 60 days of investigation as per Section 187(2) of BNSS which is a change in earlier provisions of Section 167 Cr.P.C which provided for police remand for first 15 days only," it noted. It added that that the Investigating Officer can move fresh application, if so required and advised. Therefore, Khan was remanded to judicial custody till May 27..Mahmudabad was arrested on May 18 from Delhi and remanded to two-day police custody till May 20. A petition challenging his arrest is slated to be heard by the Supreme Court today. His arrest has led to an outcry with many describing the police action as an assault on free speech..Operation Sindoor is the name given to India's cross-border military response against Pakistan, following the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22. In a Facebook post, Mahmudabad wrote that with Operation Sindoor, India had sent a message to Pakistan that, "if you don’t deal with your terrorism problem then we will!" He had also criticised those blindly advocating war, stating, "The loss of civilian life is tragic on both sides and is the main reason why war should be avoided. There are those who are mindlessly advocating for a war but they have never seen one let alone lived in or visited a conflict zone ..."He also asked right-wing commentators praising Colonel Sofiya Qureshi - who led the media briefing on Operation Sindoor - to speak up for victims of mob lynchings and arbitrary demolitions of properties.“The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings is important but optics must translate to reality on the ground otherwise it’s just hypocrisy. When a prominent Muslim politician said “Pakistan Murdabad” and was trolled by Pakistanis for doing so- Indian right wing commentators defended him by saying “he is our mulla.” Of course this is funny but it also points to just how deep communalism has managed to infect the Indian body politic,” he said in the post..Mahmudabad was then summoned by Haryana State Commission For Women. The Commission Chairperson Renu Bhatia has claimed that the remarks amount to “disparagement of women in uniform, including Col. Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh, and undermining their role as professional officers in the Indian Armed Forces”.In a public statement posted on X, Mahmudabad in response said there was nothing even remotely misogynistic in his comments.“I have used my academic training and public voice to advocate for peace due to the high cost of war. At the same time I have analysed and commented on the manner in which "care has been taken by the Indian armed forces to not target military or civilian installations or infrastructure so that there is no unnecessary escalation." This reflects a clear appreciation of the Indian military's measured and proportional approach and indeed I have condemned the use of terrorists by the Pakistani military to destabilise the region. In fact in my analysis I have shown that this puts "the onus on the Pakistani military to make sure it cannot hide any longer behind terrorists and non-state actors." I further added that the Pak military has used these tactics "to destabilise the region for far too long." Animated by a profound moral commitment to minimising the human cost of armed conflict, my statements solely express concern over the rhetorical excesses and reckless warmongering exhibited by certain sections of the civilian public,” he explained..However, Bhatia’s claim led to registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Mahmudabad, leading to his arrest. A second FIR also stands registered against him on a complaint made by Yogesh Jatheri, the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and sarpanch of Jatheri village. Mahmudabad is already in judicial custody in the second case.
