NEW DELHI: The Haryana Government on Monday told the SC that it has refused sanction to prosecute Ashoka University Associate Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad for his controversial social media posts on Operation Sindoor. He is being let off 10 months after he was arrested for his posts in May 2025.
“As a one-time magnanimity, we have refused prosecution sanction and closed the case,” Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing Haryana Government, told a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. Following the submission, the Bench ordered closure of the criminal case against Mahmudabad pending before a Sonepat court. The Bench, which had earlier restrained the trial court from taking cognisance of the Haryana SIT chargesheet in the case filed in August 2025, asked the accused to be cautious in future.
“Sometimes writing in between the lines creates more problems. Sometimes the situation is so sensitive that we all have to be careful. The petitioner, being a highly learned person, shall act in a prudent manner in future,” the CJI said.
“We also don’t want that as soon as they decide not to grant sanction, you go and write any damn thing you want. If they show magnanimity, then you also have to be responsible,” the Bench had noted on January 6.
The Haryana Police had arrested Mahmudabad on May 18 last year after two FIRs were registered against him: one based on a complaint by the chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women, Renu Bhatia, and the other on a complaint by a village sarpanch in Sonepat district over his social media posts on Operation Sindoor. Mahmudabad was booked under Sections 152, 353, 79 and 196 of the BNS.
Mahmudabad had allegedly described media briefings by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh during Operation Sindoor as “optics”. “But optics must translate to reality on the ground; otherwise, it’s just hypocrisy,” he had allegedly said.
Wing Commander Vyomika Singh and Colonel Qureshi were the face of India’s press briefings on Operation Sindoor, as the two women officers flanked Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in their interaction with the media.
Taking strong exception to the Haryana Police SIT seizing electronic gadgets, including cellphones, of Mahmudabad, the Supreme Court had on July 16 last year said the SIT “misdirected itself”. It had asked the Haryana SIT, headed by a police officer, to only confine itself to the two FIRs against Mahmudabad over his contentious social media posts and see if there was an offence and submit its report in four weeks.
On August 25, the top court had restrained the trial court from taking cognisance of a chargesheet filed by the Haryana SIT in one of the FIRs against him. It has further restrained the trial court from framing any charges in the case.