New Delhi: A day after the Kolkata Police arrested law student Sharmistha Panoli from Gurugram for her alleged offensive comments on social media, two separate complaints have been lodged in New Delhi against the man whose complaint led to her arrest.
Sharmistha, who studies law in Pune, was arrested on Friday. The Alipore Court in Kolkata remanded her to judicial custody on Saturday.
The arrest was made on the basis of an FIR registered by one Wazahat Khan Qadri Rashidi, co-founder of the Rashidi Foundation in Kolkata. He had accused Sharmistha of insulting Islam and the Prophet. It has now come to light that Rashidi himself abused Hindi deities in the past on social media posts. The complaints against him were lodged for these.
Referring to those abusive posts, advocate Vineet Jindal filed an official complaint with the Cyber Crime Unit of Delhi Police against Rashidi. He sought registration of FIR against Khan under Sections 194, 195, 356 of BNS and sections 66, 67, 69 of the IT Act.
“I am writing to lodge a formal complaint regarding a series of extremely offensive, hateful, and defamatory posts circulating on social media by an individual named Wazahat Khan Qadri Rashidi, whose profiles and posts are available publicly on platforms like Twitter (now X). The individual has made repeated posts containing Hate speech targeting the Hindu community, its beliefs, practices, and revered figures including Lord Krishna. Sexually explicit and vulgar language mocking sacred scriptures and deities. Communal provocation aimed at disturbing social harmony. Graphic misinformation and morphed images intended to ridicule and provoke religious sentiments. The content includes abusive terms like rapist culture, urine drinkers, and derogatory remarks on Hindu festivals, deities, and temples (e.g., Kamakhya Devi Temple). These posts appear to be a clear and deliberate attempt to promote enmity between religious groups, which is a punishable offense under 194, 195, 356 BNS and 66, 67, 69 of IT Act. request to lodge an FIR against above named person. I am ready to provide any further information or cooperate in the investigation process as required,” Jindal wrote in his online complaint.
Advocate Amita Sachdeva filed the second complaint with the Cyber Crime Cell of Saket Police in Delhi against Rashidi.
She wrote that the complaint has been filed against Wazahat Khan Qadri Rashidi, Co-Founder of Rashidi Foundation, Kolkata, for “posting offensive, derogatory, and inflammatory content on social media platform X, targeting Hindu Religion, Deities, Festivals, and Culture. These posts have caused significant hurt to the religious sentiments of the Hindu community, including myself, and have the potential to incite communal disharmony.”
it has been reported that Rashidi has already started deleting his posts that allegedly abused Hinduism and Hindu deities and festivals. Sharmistha had also deleted her alleged offensive video, and issued an apology. Despite that, she was arrested.
