Bail for Indian professor arrested for anti-war comments

India’s top court has granted interim bail to an Indian professor who was arrested over his remarks about the recent military hostilities between India and Pakistan.

Ali Khan Mahmudabad, an associate professor at Ashoka University, was arrested from his home in Delhi on Sunday.

He has been accused of endangering national sovereignty and promoting enmity between groups, based on a complaint filed by a youth member of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He denies the allegations.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ordered Mr Mahmudabad’s release but refused to put a hold on the investigation against him.

“Having regard to the two online posts that have led to the FIR [complaint], we are satisfied that no case of staying the investigation is made out,” the court said, adding that a three-member special investigation team will further look into the case.

The judges have also barred Mr Mahmudabad from writing any online article or making speeches online related to the posts that are being investigated.

Shortly after the verdict, Ashoka University released a statement saying it was “heartened” by the court’s decision to grant Mr Mahmudabad bail.

“It has provided great comfort to his family and all of us at Ashoka University,” it said.

Mr Mahmudabad’s arrest had sparked criticism from academics and rights groups, who called the allegations “baseless” and the arrest a form of “censorship”.

The case stems from two public social media posts written by Mr Mahmudabad, in which he talked about India’s military action against Pakistan.

Earlier this month, tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours reached an unprecedented high after India launched air strikes against Pakistan in response to a deadly attack in the tourist town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people. Delhi accused Islamabad of supporting militant groups involved in the killings, a charge Pakistan denied. This was followed by four days of military escalations, which ended with a ceasefire brokered by the US.

“There are those who are mindlessly advocating for war,” the 42-year-old professor wrote in one post on 8 May, “but they have never seen one, let alone lived in or visited a conflict zone”.

In the same post, he expressed support for India’s response while warning of the brutality inherent in any war. He also highlighted the significance of two women officers – one of whom is Muslim – presenting the operation’s details during daily media briefings.

“I am very happy to see so many right wing commentators applauding Colonel Sofiya Qureshi,” he wrote, but “they should also demand that the victims of mob lynching, arbitrary demolitions [of houses], others who are victims of the BJP’s hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens”. Several rights groups have pointed out that there has been a rise in violence and hate speech against Muslims in India in the past decade.

Two police complaints have been filed against the professor based on the interpretation of his online remarks.

The first complaint was filed by a BJP youth activist Yogesh (he uses only one name), on Saturday, on the basis of which Mr Mahmudabad was arrested, his lawyer Mohammad Nizam Pasha said.

While the second complaint was filed by Renu Bhatia, the head of Haryana’s State Commission for Women on Sunday.

The women’s commission first issued a notice to the professor on 12 May, alleging that Mr Mahmudabad’s social media posts had “disparaged” the two women defence officers and “undermined their role” in the armed forces.

In response, Mr Mahmudabad sent a written reply to the commission’s notice and his lawyers also appeared before the commission on 14 May, but it refused to hear the lawyers, Mr Pasha said.

In his written response, which he shared on social media, the academic said that his remarks had been “misunderstood” and that, contrary to the allegations, his post had actually praised the decision to have two women officers lead the military briefings.

“There is nothing remotely misogynistic about my comments that could be construed as anti-women,” he said.

Several academics, activists, opposition politicians and civil society members have spoken against Mr Mahmudabad’s arrest.

Mr Mahmudabad is a teacher of political science and his known for his works on religion, with a focus on Indian Muslim history.

He comes from an aristocratic family from Uttar Pradesh state and is a member of the regional Samajwadi Party.

After his arrest, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav posted a couplet on X, which included an indirect reference to the professor being arrested for telling the truth.

President of the main opposition Congress party, Mallikarjun Kharge, said the arrest of the professor shows how the BJP is “fearful” of any opinion disliked by them.

Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.