A day after Ashoka University Associate Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad was arrested, his students described the action as “wrongful” and demanded his release.

Mahmudabad, the head of Ashoka University’s political science department, was on Sunday remanded to police custody for two days for his comments about the press briefings on Operation Sindoor.

In a statement shared on social media by Arpita Das, who also teaches at the university, the students from Mahmudabad’s course – Banish the Poets – said his arrest violated “not just academic freedom, but…very principles he taught us and stands for”.

The students stated that Mahmudabad “never expressed any disrespect for the nation or the Constitution, nor did he ever teach us such disrespect”.

Throughout the course, “professor Khan lectured on love, consistently emphasising secular values such as reason, compassion, justice, and freedom of thought as the foundation of meaningful dialogue”, they added.

Demanding his release, the students said the university should stand by him, “for him and the ideals he embodies, we harbour hope”.

Case against the professor

Mahmudabad has been booked in two cases 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 of the cases was filed based on a complaint by Yogesh Jatheri, the 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 Bhartiya 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.

On May 8, in a social media post, Mahmudabad had highlighted the apparent irony of Hindutva commentators praising Colonel Sofiya 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 had accused the professor of attempting to “vilify national military actions”. Renu Bhatia 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”.

On Monday, the Supreme Court accepted a request for an early hearing of a petition by Mahmudabad.

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.