Kolkata, 5 June (H.S.): The Calcutta High Court has granted interim bail to Sharmistha Panoli. Hearing the bail plea of the 22-year-old law student and social media influencer, Justice Raja Basu approved the conditional interim bail.
The Calcutta High Court has imposed several conditions while granting interim bail to Sharmistha. The court has completely banned Sharmistha from leaving the country. The court said that Sharmistha cannot leave the country without the permission of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM). The court has asked the influencer to furnish a bail bond of ₹10,000.
The court has also directed the Kolkata Police to take appropriate action on the basis of the complaint lodged by Sharmistha regarding her safety before her arrest. Sharmistha had claimed that she was receiving threats after her social media posts.
Earlier, while hearing Sharmishtha's bail plea on Tuesday, the High Court told her lawyer that the video was posted on social media and it was heard that it hurt the sentiments of a particular section.
The bench said that we have complete freedom of expression, it does not mean that you can hurt anyone's religious sentiments. Even if the sentence is less than 7 years, the police has full right to arrest anyone.
The bench said that if the punishment for the alleged crime is less than 7 years, it does not mean that the police cannot arrest you. If any condition of Section 35 of the Indian Penal Code is fulfilled, the police can arrest anyone if they want, you should read the provisions first.
The High Court also said that any person should be careful while making such comments, because in our country people of different communities, castes and religions live together. The court has decided that the case registered against Sharmistha Panoli in Kolkata's Gardenreach police station will be considered the main case, because it was registered first. Proceedings of all other cases registered against her will be closed.
Notably, Sharmistha, in one of her videos, criticized those actors who did not react to Operation Sindoor. She was allegedly responding to a user who had asked why India fired on Pakistan without any reason. Sharmistha had also allegedly used abusive language in her video.
She is accused of using objectionable words against a particular community, which hurt religious sentiments and created controversy. Due to this, the police took action against her and the arrest was made. Sharmistha Panoli was arrested from Gurugram late on May 30 and brought to Kolkata, where she was produced before a magistrate. From where she was sent to judicial custody. However, after the case came to light, many BJP leaders opposed Sharmistha's arrest and criticized the Mamata government.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey