NEW DELHI: A professor, who allegedly made defamatory remark against India’s Union Minister Smriti Irani, on Facebook, was sent to jail after he himself surrendered in a court in Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Professor Shaharyar Ali surrendered to Additional Sessions Judge Anurag Kumar and filed an interim bail application on Tuesday.
The judge cancelled the bail plea, after which the professor was sent to jail, reported news agency Press Trust of India.
Firozabad Police had charged Shaharyar Ali, head of the History department at SRK College, in March for an alleged obscene Facebook post against the Women and Child Development Minister, Smriti Irani. The college had then served him with a suspension notice.
The Supreme Court refused to grant protection from arrest to Shaharyar Ali, earlier this month.
Allahabad High Court rejected an anticipatory bail plea filed by the professor, in May. Justice JJ Munir refusing the arrest, said “there was no material on record to show that the professor’s account was hacked”.
The two bench judge said, “A women cannot be defamed like this. You cannot use social media just to defame. What kind of language is being used? There is a language to criticise. There is a language to say jokes. You can’t say anything you like and then want to get away,”
Anticipatory bail application was moved by Ali, in May 2021. The matter came up for hearing in the Apex Court on July 9. The High Court had rejected the application and observed that the professor’s conduct of this kind prima facie did not entitle him to anticipatory bail and had remarked that Ali was entitled to surrender and seek regular bail, which would then be considered in accordance with the law, earlier.
