2 TISS students denied bail over alleged slogans supporting Khalid, Imam
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Mumbai: A Mumbai court on Friday denied anticipatory bail to two students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) who were booked for allegedly shouting slogans in support of jailed activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, The Indian Express reported.
The two students have also been booked for allegedly possessing downloaded books and other material that the prosecution claims reflects Maoist ideology.
Seven other students, who were also booked after participating in an event in October commemorating the death anniversary of former Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba, were granted anticipatory bail, the newspaper reported.
The court said on Friday that paying homage to Saibaba was not unlawful. However, it observed that the allegations that the two students had shouted slogans supporting Khalid and Imam, along with the material recovered from their electronic devices, weighed against granting them anticipatory bail, The Indian Express reported.
“Being students, it was expected from accused persons to respect the law of land,” the newspaper quoted the judge as saying.
Khalid and Imam have been in jail for more than five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their alleged role in a conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots.
Saibaba, who had more than 90 per cent disability and used a wheelchair, spent over seven years in jail on allegations of links with Maoists. In March 2024, the Bombay High Court acquitted him and he was released. Seven months later, in October 2024, he died in Hyderabad due to post-operative complications.
In October 2025, some TISS students gathered on the campus to light candles and display posters of Saibaba to commemorate his death anniversary.
The police registered a case against the students who attended the event based on a complaint by the institute's administration. The First Information Report invoked charges including causing prejudice to the nation, causing enmity between groups and participating in an unlawful assembly.
In their anticipatory bail applications, the two students denied shouting any slogans and claimed they had been booked based on “false narratives” circulated on social media.
They also argued that although the institute's administration had claimed that other students had reported the alleged slogans, there was no evidence on record to substantiate the allegation, The Indian Express reported.
Special Public Prosecutor Shishir Hirey opposed the students' pleas, arguing that “objectionable material” had been recovered from their electronic devices, the newspaper reported.
The material allegedly relates to Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin and publications of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
The students' lawyer argued that the material did not establish any links to Maoist ideology and that the literature was freely available for purchase.