CHANDIGARH, May 22: – Acting on Supreme Court directions, Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Kapur on Thursday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the two FIRs filed against Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad for his social media posts on Operation Sindoor.
The SIT will be headed by Additional Director General of Police (Crime) Mamta Singh, who also serves as Commissioner of Police, Sonepat. The team includes SP Karnal Ganga Ram Punia and SP (STF, Gurugram) Vikrant Bhushan.
Mahmudabad, head of the political science department at Ashoka University, was arrested on May 18, after complaints alleging his posts endangered national integrity and sovereignty. The FIRs were filed at Rai Police Station in Sonepat—one by Haryana Women’s Commission chairperson Renu Bhatia and another by a village sarpanch.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court granted Mahmudabad interim bail but refused to stay the investigation. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh directed Haryana to form an SIT within 24 hours, comprising three directly recruited IPS officers from outside Haryana and Delhi, including a superintendent-rank woman officer.
The SIT is to conduct a “holistic investigation” into the “complexity of the phraseology employed” in the two posts. The team has been directed to file its report under Section 193 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, at the earliest.
Read more: Ashoka University Professor Arrested Over Remarks on Operation Sindoor
