Ashoka University professor in lockup, colleagues keep vigil at police station in shifts

RAI (SONIPAT): Colleagues of Ali Khan Mahmudabad are keeping him company in "rotating shifts" at Rai police station's lockup in Sonipat, where he has spent a night since his arrest on Sunday morning and will spend another before the local court hears the case again on Tuesday afternoon.

The court has, meanwhile, instructed police to fully cooperate in case of any medical emergency with Mahmudabad's wife in the advanced stages of pregnancy.

Colleagues have decided they will ensure the 42-year-old professor is not alone for a moment while he is incarcerated.


"We're coming here in shifts to ensure someone from the university is always with him. Around 10 faculty members have come to the police station to ensure Mahmudabad has access to basics like food and diabetes medicines. He wears a glucose monitor. The police are slow to respond to requests but are taking care of his medical needs. There has been no mistreatment," faculty member of Ashoka University told TOI on Monday.

Mahmudabad was arrested after police cited a complaint by Haryana State Women's Commission chairperson Renu Bhatia to file an FIR under various sections of BNS, including "endangering India's sovereignty" for his comments on Operation Sindoor. The police complaint followed a summons from the panel that Mahmudabad – associate professor who heads the political science department – skipped, though he issued an elaborate clarification that the panel had completely misunderstood his comments that were made in a social media post on May 9.

The Ashoka University faculty association on Sunday condemned the arrest and described it as "calculated harassment", with several of Mahmudabad's colleagues – besides many other voices in and beyond academia that have since come out in Mahmudabad's support – pointing out that his post had, in fact, praised the Indian Army, denounced warmongering by a section of people, and supported govt's actions against Pakistan. They have found his arrest confounding.

Also read: Students of Mahumadabad demand Ashoka University to stand with their professor

"The comments made by Prof Ali, while seen as inappropriate by the complainant, do not warrant arrest in a democratic country. It is completely disproportionate to the alleged offence," a faculty member told TOI.

In her police complaint, Bhatia alleged that when the commission visited the university on May 15 – after Mahmudabad skipped the May 14 summons – they could not find him because "the professor was believed to have been sent away or hidden". She also alleged university officials did not cooperate.

Faculty members TOI spoke to said the commission's visit coincided with the end of the university semester. At this time, after completing grading, professors are typically away from campus, travelling for research or visiting family. In any case, Mahmudabad lives off-campus in Delhi and commutes daily. His absence from campus was "normal for the end of the semester", the faculty members said, adding should the commission have wanted to meet any other professor, it's likely they too would have been away.

Mahmudabad's absence, explained a faculty member, was purely due to the academic calendar, and was in no way an intentional attempt to evade the commission.

Kapil Dev Balyan, one of Mahmudabad's lawyers, told TOI arguments on Sunday at the local Sonipat court where the associate professor was produced lasted for almost five hours.

Police sources had earlier told TOI they had sought remand for five days. The court granted two.

"The police proposed investigating the matter in the professor's local area of Lucknow, which the defence opposed," Balyan said. "There are two FIRs against the professor, number 146 and 147. FIR 146 stems from a complaint filed by Yogesh Jatheri, a village sarpanch. While details are mentioned in the FIR, the story was manipulated and presented differently. As the matter is now sub judice, further comments on the specifics would be inappropriate," he added.