New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday told the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to restrict its probe to the two FIRs lodged against Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a professor of political science at Haryana-based Ashoka University, over his controversial remarks on Operation Sindoor.

Supreme Court ordered the extension of interim bail.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta told the SIT, formed by the Haryana Director General of Police (DGP), pursuant to its previous order, to produce the investigation report before the apex court prior to the filing of the same before the trial court.

“We direct that the investigation of the SIT shall be confined to the contents of the two FIRs, subject matter of these proceedings. The investigation report, before it is filed before the jurisdictional court, be produced before this Court,” the top court ordered.

The direction was passed by the Justice Kant-led Bench after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Mahmudabad, apprehended that the SIT may start investigating other things.

Sibal also urged the top court to relax the conditions of the interim bail, asking the petitioner not to write any online post, article, or make any oral speech related to either of the two social media posts, or express any opinion in relation to the recent India-Pakistan conflict.

At this, the Justice Kant-led Bench told the senior counsel that those conditions were only meant to introduce a cooling-off period. “He can write the rest of the things, but not with respect to the subject matter of the FIRs. We don’t want a parallel media trial on this issue. He is free to write on anything else. No impediment on his right to speech,” clarified the apex court.

Further, it asked Sibal to wait for “some time” and suggested the senior counsel to remind the top court of the relaxation of the interim bail conditions on the next date of hearing.s