Who is Ali Khan Mahmudabad, the Ashoka University Professor 'arrested' for remarks on Operation Sindoor

Mint

18-05-2025

Ali Khan Mahmudabad, who teaches Political Science at Haryana-based Ashoka University, has been arrested for his remarks regarding press briefings on Operation Sindoor.
The arrest was based on a complaint filed by Yogesh Jatheri, the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Yuva Morcha in Haryana, his lawyer said.
Ali, 42, has been arrested under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, inciting armed rebellion or subversive activities and insulting religious beliefs, reports said.
'Haryana police has illegally arrested Dr Ali Khan. Taken to Haryana from Delhi without transit remand. FIR at 8 PM. Police reached his home the next morning at 7 AM,' Delhi University professor and writer Apoorvanand said in a post on X. 'The Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court must intervene. Please see the Pravir Purkayastha judgment of the Supreme Court,' he said.
Born on December, 2, 1982. Ali is the son of Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan, popularly known as Raja of Mahmudabad, who spent about four decades if his life in a legal battle to reclaim his ancestral property seized by the government under the Enemy Properties Act.
Ali's father was the only son of Mohammad Amir Ahmad Khan, the last ruling Raja of Mahmudabad and long-time treasurer and major financier of the Muslim League in the years leading up to the partition of India
Ali did his schooling up until the from La Martiniere Lucknow. Later, he went to England to study at King's College School till 1996. He graduated sWinchester College in 2001. Ali obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He has also studied at the University of Damascus in Syria and the Amherst College in the United States.
Ali is married to daughter of former minister in Jammu and Kashmir. He joined Samajwadi Party in 2017.
Ali has been arrested days after Haryana women's commission summoned him for his alleged remarks on Facebook that the Commission said "disparaged women officers in the Indian Armed Forces and promoted communal disharmony'. The Commisison took suo motu cognisance of his social media posts following Operation Sindoor on May 7.
In a social media post on May 8, Mahmudabad, the head of the university's political science department, had highlighted the apparent irony of Hindutva commentators praising Colonel Sofia Qureshi, who had represented the Army during media briefings about Indian military operations against terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
After the summons, Ali said in a public statement mentioning that his posts were 'misunderstood and objected to.' Slamming the summons that he had received, the Ashoka University professor commented, 'This is a new form of censorship and harassment, which invents issues where there are none'.
This is a new form of censorship and harassment, which invents issues where there are none.