Ashoka University Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, who was arrested for his social media post on Operation Sindoor, was released from Sonipat jail on Thursday after the Supreme Court granted him an interim bail on the matter.
Mahmudabad was arrested on Sunday by the Haryana Police for his social media posts related to Operation Sindoor.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Mahmudabad but refused to stay the investigation against him.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh directed the Haryana director general of police to constitute a three-member special investigation team (SIT) headed by an inspector general (IG) rank officer, also including a superintendent (SP) rank woman officer, within 24 hours to investigate the case.
The top court ordered, "However, to holistically understand the complexity of the phraseology employed and for proper appreciation of some of the expressions used in these two online posts, we direct the Director General of Police, Haryana to constitute an SIT comprising three directly recruited IPS Officers, who do not belong to the States of Haryana or Delhi."
The bench, which examined the online post by the professor, who heads the political science department in the Sonipat-based Ashoka University, questioned his choice of words, saying they were used deliberately to humiliate, insult, or put others in discomfort.
A Sonipat court on May 20 sent Mahmudabad to judicial custody till May 27 after the completion of his two-day police custody. Haryana Police arrested Mahmudabad on May 18 after two FIRs were registered against him.
The two FIRs -- one based on a complaint by the chairperson of Haryana State Commission for Women, Renu Bhatia, and the other on a complaint by a village sarpanch -- were lodged by Rai police in Sonipat district.
Meanwhile, Haryana's Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur constituted an SIT to conduct investigations in the two FIRs against Ali Khan Mahmudabad on Thursday.
According to Kapur's order, in compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling, an SIT headed by Singh was constituted to conduct investigations in connection with the FIRs dated May 17 and May 18 registered against Mahmudabad at Rai police station.