Calcutta HC grants interim bail to Sharmistha Panoli

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday granted interim bail to the 22-year-old influencer and law student Sharmishta Panoli, arrested in the Operation Sindoor post case. As part of the bail conditions, she has been barred from leaving the country without prior permission from the Chief Judicial Magistrate. She has also been directed to deposit a sum of Rs 10,000.The High Court has also instructed the Kolkata Police to act on the petition filed by Panoli regarding threats to her safety, which she had raised before her arrest. Earlier this week, the court denied interim bail to Panoli, citing that freedom of speech does not mean one can hurt the sentiments of another person or community.
The 22-year-old was arrested by the Kolkata Police last week from Gurugram in Haryana. She is accused of hurting religious sentiments through her ‘communal’ comments in now-deleted videos on her social media. After facing backlash, Panoli deleted the post and issued an apology.The interim bail comes a day after the Kolkata Police filed a first information report (FIR) against Wajahat Khan Qadri, the man whose complaint led to the arrest of Ms Panoli. Qadri faces allegations of hurting religious sentiments. He is on the run, the police said.
An Assam Police team has also reached Kolkata with an arrest warrant for Qadri. The Assam Police filed a case against him earlier this week for posting content on social media that contained hate speech and derogatory remarks, which hurt religious sentiments. Qadri  also faces many cases in other states.
Her arrest led to a political row in West Bengal, with the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) describing Sharmishta Panoli's arrest as “selective enforcement” and accusing the Kolkata Police of acting in “uncharacteristic haste”.