Indian professor who was jailed for comments on women military officer is released on bail

NEW DELHI: A professor who was jailed after making comments perceived as critical of women officers in the Indian army was ordered released on bail by the country’s top court on Wednesday, his lawyer said.

The Supreme Court also placed restrictions on Ali Khan Mahmudabad’s ability to comment on the case and on his social media posts, pending further investigation, lawyer Mohammad Nizamuddin Pasha told Reuters.

Mahmudabad, head of the political science department at Ashoka University near Delhi, was arrested on Sunday after his remarks about two women army officers. The two, one Hindu and one Muslim, gave press briefings during the intense fighting earlier this month between India and Pakistan.

Mahmudabad has been accused of disrupting communal (religious) harmony and of using words or gestures intended to insult a woman’s modesty, website Live Law reported.

The Commission for Women in the northern state of Haryana, where the university is located, complained that Mahmudabad’s remarks undermined women officers and were an “attempt to vilify national military actions”, according to local media.

“The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings are important, but optics must translate to reality on the ground, otherwise it’s just hypocrisy,” Mahmudabad said in a social media post on May 8.

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“The grassroots reality that common Muslims face (in India) is different from what the government tried to show but at the same time the press conference shows that an India, united in its diversity, is not completely dead as an idea,” added the professor, who is Muslim.

Muslims and rights groups have accused some members of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and affiliates of promoting anti-Islamic hate speech and vigilantism, and demolishing Muslim-owned properties. Prime Minister Narendra Modi denies religious discrimination exists in India.

The fighting between the South Asian neighbours erupted after India attacked what it called terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan following an April 22 attack by militants in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) that killed 26 people.

Pakistan said civilians sites were targeted and the Indian attack was followed by days of intense fighting, until a ceasefire was announced between the Pakistan and India on May 10.

Prior to his arrest, Mahmudabad said that his legal team responded to a summons by the commission, which “failed to highlight how my post is contrary to the rights of or laws of women”.

“We are committed to making the women feel safe and validated in all their endeavours be it academic or on the borders of this great nation,” Renu Bhatia, chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women said on X last week.

Ashoka University said in a statement it was heartened with the news of Mahmudabad’s bail, ANI news agency reported.

Reuters has a minority stake in ANI.

Local media had reported the university had earlier distanced itself from the professor’s comments, saying they were made in his personal capacity, but that a group of faculty members and students stood by the professor.