Kolkata: Sharmistha Panoli, the 22-year-old law student and social media influencer, who was arrested from her Gurugram residence by the Kolkata Police was granted interim bail by the Calcutta High Court on Thursday. T
The Court directed Sharmistha to furnish a bail bond of Rs 10,000.
” She has got bail on 3 conditions, that she will surrender her passport, she will join the investigation and sign a bail bond…whatever happening right now in the country is wrong. You just arrest students…they speak what they see, their exposure is different…whatever she said, she said it based on the videos she saw…These children don’t know much…there is a fight between India & Pakistan and they are just defending their country, so in such a situation…if they post a video like that of 5-10 seconds, is it even wrong? She is a victim of circumstances…a whole community has stood up against her…it is not like a riot took place because of what she said, so why is she being punished?” Advocate DP Singh, lawyer of Sharmistha, told ANI.
A student of a reputed college in Pune, Maharashtra, Sharmistha has been accused of making inflammatory statements against the Prophet and Islam and sharing the video on social media. Though she deleted the video later and apologised, an FIR was registered against her in Kolkata by one Wajahat Khan.
The Kolkata Police acted promptly and arrested her from Gurugram. She was sent to 14 days judicial custody by a court in Alipore. On Wednesday, a single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court turned down her bail prayer. She moved an appeal before a division bench on Thursday and bail was granted.
Sharmistha’s arrest led to a major political row on social media, with many accusing the Kolkata Police of being hyper-active.
It also came to be known that Wajahat Khan, the complainant against Sharmistha was himself involved in publishing inflammatory posts against Hindu deities on social media till recently. FIRs have been lodged against him in Delhi, Guwahati and Kolkata. A police team from Assam is also in Kolkata to arrest Khan, but he is absconding.
