Latest news with #AmnestyInternationalIndia
Middle East Eye
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
India: Outrage after Cambridge-educated Muslim academic arrested over online posts
Outrage has erupted in India after a Muslim professor was arrested over a social media post which praised India's military operations against Pakistan while criticising attacks on Indian Muslims. Ali Khan Mahmudabad, 42, is a British-educated associate professor of political science at Ashoka University. He studied at Winchester College, a boarding school in England, and earned a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2014. Mahmudabad was arrested on Sunday in New Delhi after a complaint was filed against him by a youth leader of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Rights groups and prominent commentators have erupted in outrage. Aakar Patel, the chair of Amnesty International India, said: "Mahmudabad is in jail not because of what he wrote but because he's Muslim." New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The academic was arrested under sections of the criminal code which pertain to acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, the incitement of armed rebellion or subversive activities and insulting religious beliefs. After the ceasefire: What lies ahead for India and Pakistan? Read More » Ashoka University's faculty association released a statement condemning his arrest on what it called "groundless and untenable charges". The university itself issued a statement distancing itself from the academic's social media posts. But more than 1,000 academics have signed a letter of support for Mahmudabad, including prominent historians Romila Thapar and Ramachandra Guha. The Print, a major Indian news outlet, said that the "vicious hounding and egregious arrest" of Mahmudabad was a "shameful insult to our millenia-old democratic tradition". 'Vicious hounding and egregious arrest' Mahmudabad, who born in 1982, hails from north Indian nobility. His grandfather, Mohammed Amir Ahmed Khan, was a prominent nobleman and leader of the All India Muslim League before the partition of the subcontinent. Mahmudabad himself was a national spokesperson of the left-wing Samajwadi Party from 2019 to 2022. In a Facebook post on 8 May, Mahmudabad had responded to a press conference given by Colonel Sofiya Qureishi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, two spokeswomen for the Indian Armed Forces, on India's military operation against Pakistan. 'Mahmudabad is in jail not because of what he wrote but because he's Muslim' - Aakar Patel, Amnesty International India "I am very happy to see so many right wing commentators applauding Colonel Sophia Qureishi," Mahmudabad said, "but perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJP's hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens." Qureishi, an Indian Muslim, was widely praised in the Indian press. Mahmudabad argued that "the press conference was just a fleeting glimpse – an illusion and allusion perhaps – to an India that defied the logic on which Pakistan was built." He added that "the grassroots reality that common Muslims face is different from what the government tried to show but at the same time the press conference shows that an India, united in its diversity, is not completely dead as an idea." He also criticised the Pakistani military, saying it "has used militarised non-state actors to destabilise the region for far too long while also claiming to be victims on the international stage." 'Utterly condemnable' India's most prominent Muslim politician, Asaduddin Owaisi, slammed the arrest as "utterly condemnable", noting that "a mere complaint by a BJP worker" provoked the police to take action. Internet personality Ramesh Srivats, who has nearly 4m followers on social media platform X, remarked that he could see no issue with Mahmudabad's post. "Maybe these days, even long sentences can lead to long sentences." The arrest came days after the state of Haryana Women's Commission claimed on Monday that Mahmudabad's statement "disparaged women officers in the Indian Armed Forces and promoted communal disharmony" and summoned him. Mahmudabad responded that "there is nothing remotely misogynistic about my comments that could be construed as anti-women". After the ceasefire: What lies ahead for India and Pakistan? Read More » On Wednesday 7 May, India launched a deadly attack on Pakistani territory on Wednesday morning, which Pakistan said killed at least 36 people, including civilians. India said Pakistani shelling killed at least 16 people, civilians among them, in Indian-controlled Kashmir. After that came nearly four days of intense aerial incursions and shelling between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, until US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that the two countries had come to a ceasefire. Conflict over the divided former princely state of Kashmir has caused three wars between India and Pakistan. Both countries accuse the other of occupying the region. India currently claims the region as "integral" to its sovereignty, while Pakistan calls for a plebiscite - including in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir - to give Kashmiris the right to self-determination.
Scroll.in
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Karnataka High Court stays money laundering case against Amnesty India, Aakar Patel
The Karnataka High Court on Monday stayed a money laundering case against the now-defunct human rights organisation Amnesty International India and its former executive director Aakar Patel,reported Bar and Bench. Justice Hemant Chandangoudar noted that another bench of the court had extended similar interim relief to former Amnesty International India chief executive officer, G Ananthapadmanabhan. The case dates back to 2022, when the Enforcement Directorate accused the organisation of laundering Rs 51.72 crore. The agency had initiated the case based on a complaint by the Central Bureau of Investigation filed in 2019. On Monday, the High Court issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate on the petition filed by the organisation, Patel and Ananthapadmanabhan, seeking that the case against them be quashed, Hindustan Times reported. The trial in the 2022 case is pending before a Bengaluru court. The central agency has alleged that the Amnesty International-United Kingdom was remitting funds from abroad through its Indian entities – by taking the foreign direct investment route – to evade the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. Remitting involves sending money in payment or as gifts. These funds were allegedly received to expand the organisation's activities in India despite the home ministry denying permission to the body and the Amnesty India Foundation Trust to register under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. The Enforcement Directorate claimed that Amnesty International India has been involved in activities that are irrelevant to their declared commercial businesses. The organisation's working model is used to route foreign funds in the guise of business activities, it added. CBI case against Amnesty India The Central Bureau of Investigation has claimed that the Amnesty International India Foundation Trust was permitted in 2011-'12 to receive foreign contributions from the Amnesty International-United Kingdom. However, the permission was cancelled following adverse inputs from the security agencies, it said. The agency alleged that the Indians for Amnesty International Trust and Amnesty International India Private Limited were formed in 2012-'13 and 2013-'14 to 'escape the FCRA [Foreign Contribution Regulation Act] route'. In September 2020, the human rights organisation had said it was forced to shut its operations as the Indian government had frozen its bank accounts. The group had said its 'lawful fundraising model' was being portrayed as money laundering because Amnesty India had challenged the 'government's grave inactions and excesses'. The Centre had described the allegations as unfortunate, exaggerated and 'far from the truth'. Amnesty's 'glossy statements' about humanitarian work and speaking truth to power were nothing but a 'ploy to divert attention' from their activities, which were in 'clear contravention' of Indian laws, the government had said.
