The Bombay High Court on Friday (August 14) granted interim protection from arrest to Kamakhya Prasad Das, a former TISS student, who was booked for raising slogans "to free Umar Khalid & Sharjeel Imam."

Justice Prafulla Khubalkar agreed to hear Das' plea seeking anticipatory bail on August 31 and granted him interim protection from arrest in the meantime.

Notably, a Mumbai Court had last week denied anticipatory bail to Das and another student - Abhirup Paul, both of whom were arrested for participating in an even organised to pay homage to GN Saibaba.

The police claimed that during this event, the two students raised slogans for releasing Imam and Khalid.

Additional Sessions Judge VB Bohra had said that the Supreme Court had denied bail to Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid and thus students must respect the law of the land.

The Court had refused to grant bail to Abhirup Paul (32) and Kamakhya Prasad Das (23) who along with several other students were named in an FIR lodged in October 2025 by the Mumbai Police for participating in the event to pay homage to Saibaba and also for reading out his poems and sloganeering to free Sharjeel and Umar.

However, it granted anticipatory bail to Nikita Dsouza, Uttkarsh Khuntia, Yash Kaundilya, Avantika and Ishpreet Kaur.

While the students argued that Saibaba was acquitted from the UAPA case, there was also no offence made out only to say "Sharjeel ko riha karo, Umar ko riha karo"

The judge however opined, "No doubt, GN Saibaba came to be acquitted of charges leveled against him and therefore, act of paying homage to him by accused persons cannot be termed as illegal. However, the act of accused persons appeared to be not limited to pay him homage. They even allegedly raised slogans in the nature of releasing Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam from jail, who are facing trial for an offence under UAPA i.e. unlawful activities against the Nation. It was not the platform for raising such slogans. In other words, such slogans were not made in a public agitation or procession. The Apex Court had been pleased to reject bail applications of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. Being students, it was expected from accused persons to respect the Law of Land."

Case title: Kamakhya Prasad Das v/s State of Maharashtra