The Supreme Court on Monday accepted a request for an early hearing of a petition by Ashoka University Associate Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, who was arrested a day earlier for his comments about the press briefings on Operation Sindoor, Live Law reported.

Advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the case before a bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih. Sibal told the court that cases were filed against the professor for “an entirely patriotic statement” on the operation by the Indian armed forces.

Gavai has agreed to list the matter on Tuesday or Wednesday, Live Law reported.

Two cases have been filed against Mahmudabad for his comments about the media briefings on the Indian military operation against terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir initiated in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam attack.

One case was filed against the Ashoka University associate professor based on a complaint by Yogesh Jatheri, general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yuva Morcha unit in Haryana. The second case was filed on the basis of a complaint by Renu Bhatia, the chairperson of the Haryana State Women’s Commission.

Mahmudabad faces charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, making assertions likely to cause disharmony, acts endangering national sovereignty and words or gestures intended to insult a woman’s modesty, among others.

Mahmudabad, the head of Ashoka University’s political science department, was on Sunday remanded to police custody for two days, Bar and Bench reported.

In a social media post on May 8, Mahmudabad had highlighted the apparent irony of Hindutva commentators praising Colonel Sofia Qureshi, who had represented the Army during the media briefings about the Indian military operation.

“Perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens,” he had said.

Mahmudabad had said that the optics of the press briefings by Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh were important, “but optics must translate to reality on the ground otherwise it’s just hypocrisy”.

The Haryana women’s panel, however, accused the professor of attempting to “vilify national military actions”. Renu Bhatia, the chairperson of the commission, said that he ignored the panel’s summons on May 14. She further said that when the commission visited the university on May 15, he did not appear before it.

Mahmudabad, however, said that he only exercised his fundamental right to freedom of speech in order to promote peace and harmony.

The professor maintained that his remarks had been “completely misunderstood” by the commission and that its notice failed to highlight how his posts were “contrary to the right of or laws for women”.

Also read: Full text: ‘A good citizen and true patriot’, say 1,000 scholars in defence of Ashoka professor

Arrest shows BJP’s fear: Congress

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said on Monday that Mahmudabad’s arrest showed how fearful the Bharatiya Janata Party was of any opinion that it disliked.

Kharge said that supporting the armed forces and the government at a time when national interest reigns supreme “does not mean that we cannot question the government”.

The Congress chief questioned why the BJP had not removed Madhya Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda and state minister Kunwar Vijay Shah for their remarks about the Army.

Shah had said that India had taught a lesson to those responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack by using “their own sister”, alluding to Colonel Qureshi. Devda had said that the entire country and the military were “bowing at the feet” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, The Print reported.

“Instead of sacking their own Madhya Pradesh’s Deputy CM and minister, who made disgusting statements against our valiant Armed Forces, BJP-RSS is hellbent in casting a narrative that anybody who represents pluralism, questions the government or simply performs his professional duty in the service of the nation, is a threat to its existence,” Kharge said on Monday.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also said that nothing in Mahmudabad’s Facebook post was offensive or seditious.

“Ali Khan Mahmudabad is one of India’s most eminent scholars with global recognition,” she said. “If he is arrested on Mickey Mouse charges and jailed then it is only because of his name.”

In a similar vein, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the professor’s social media post was not anti-national or misogynistic. “A mere complaint by a BJP worker made Haryana police take action,” he noted.