Influencer Sharmishta Panoli Walks Out Of Jail After Calcutta HC Grants Bail
Last Updated:
The 22-year-old Kolkata-based influencer and law student was arrested on May 31 from Haryana's Gurugram for communal remarks allegedly against Operation Sindoor.
Social media influencer Sharmistha Panoli on Friday walked out of jail a day after Calcutta High Court granted her interim bail in a case involving alleged communal remarks linked to Operation Sindoor made in a video .
The 22-year-old Kolkata-based influencer and law student was arrested on May 31 from Haryana's Gurugram for communal remarks she made against a post that questioned India's military strike after the Pahalgam terror attack.
She was brought to Kolkata on a transit remand and placed in judicial custody till June 13.
Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury of the Calcutta High Court granted her interim bail on a personal bond of Rs 10,000, observing that the complaint against her did not disclose any cognisable offence.
While delivering the order, Justice Chowdhury stated that the arrest warrant had been issued 'mechanically" and noted that there was no need to keep her in custody for interrogation.
'The arrest warrant was issued mechanically. The accused is a law student, and there is no need to keep her in custody for interrogation," Justice Chowdhury said.
Her arrest also sparked widespread reactions on social media and sparked a political row, with several leaders condemning the move and criticising the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government.
She even received support from Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch Parliament and the leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom, who said the influencer's arrest is a 'disgrace for freedom of speech".
Meanwhile, Kolkata Police also filed a case against Wajahat Khan Qadri, the man whose complaint led to the arrest of Panoli. The man is facing arrest and is on the run.
An Assam Police team 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.
(With inputs from agencies)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
34 minutes ago
- Hans India
SIT finds liquor scam links to 2024 MP candidates
Tirupati: The ongoing investigation into the sensational liquor scam in the State has taken a significant political turn, with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) reportedly uncovering fresh links involving candidates who contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It was learnt that the SIT has found evidence suggesting that liquor money was allegedly routed to certain MP candidates during the general elections. The funds were reportedly funnelled by the prime accused, Raj Kasireddy, through his driver, and delivered to political candidates via their own drivers or gunmen. In a bid to dig deeper into these alleged connections, a SIT team recently camped in Tirupati for two days. During their stay, officials questioned several individuals and reportedly gathered crucial evidence to support the emerging claims. The probe is now intensifying, focusing on the origin of the funds used for distributing cash and other inducements to voters during the elections. Investigators are said to be tracing both the source and the flow of this money. In the midst of these developments, former Chandragiri MLA and YSR Congress Party's Ongole MP candidate in the last elections, Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, has publicly claimed that attempts werre being made to implicate him in the case. Speaking to the media on Thursday and Friday, Chevireddy maintained his innocence and declared he was ready to cooperate with any investigation. He alleged that the SIT had coerced a former Armed Reserve constable named Giri, who once served as his gunman, into making a false statement against him. 'When I served as government whip, constable Giri worked with me. The SIT summoned him and interrogated him for five days. They pressured him to falsely claim that I moved funds ranging from Rs 250 crore to Rs `500 crore. If they want to arrest me, there's no need for battalions. I'll surrender voluntarily if called. The truth will come out in court,' Chevireddy stated. He further alleged that his associate, Venkateswar Naidu, was also being subjected to harsh interrogation by the SIT in an attempt to extract a statement implicating him. Chevireddy urged investigators to question him directly rather than harassing those associated with him. He also reiterated his long-standing opposition to liquor, citing personal loss due to alcohol. 'I lost both my father and brother to alcohol. I have no association with liquor and I never will,' he asserted. As the SIT's probe deepens, more names from the political and administrative spheres are expected to emerge. With multiple layers being peeled back, the scandal is fast becoming one of the most politically charged controversies in the State's recent history.
News18
40 minutes ago
- News18
'No Equivalence With Terrorists': Shashi Tharoor Says Mediation Between India, Pakistan Not Possible
Tharoor said there was no scope for mediation between two unequals, stressing that there was no equivalence between terrorists and their victims. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has strongly asserted that there was no scope for external mediation between India and Pakistan, saying the two neighbouring countries are not equals, amid repeated claims by US President Donald Trump that he 'helped settle" the recent conflict. While speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Thursday, Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor, said there was no equivalence between terrorists and their victims. 'Mediation is not a term that we are particularly willing to entertain. I'll tell you why not. The fact is that this implies, even when you say things like broker or whatever, you're implying an equivalence which simply doesn't exist," he said at the event. 'There is no equivalence between a country that provides safe haven to terrorism, and a country that's a flourishing multi-party democracy that's trying to get on with its business." 'There is no equivalence between a state that is a status quo power that just wants to be left alone by its neighbours, where the neighbours don't agree with us, and a revisionist power that wants to upset the geopolitical arrangements that have existed for the last three-quarters of a century. There is no equivalence possible in these cases, and in these circumstances, to suggest that you can mediate between two unequals is not possible," Tharoor went on to say. Tharoor has repeatedly denied Trump's claims of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, after tensions flared when India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. Both countries agreed to a ceasefire on May 10. Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a 'full and immediate" ceasefire after a 'long night" of talks mediated by the United States, he has repeated his claim over a dozen times that he 'helped settle" the tensions between India and Pakistan. During a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump against raked up the issue, saying he was 'very proud" to help stop the India-Pakistan conflict. 'I spoke to some very talented people on both sides, very good people on both sides," he said, adding that he warned of cancelling trade deals with both countries if the conflict persisted. 'You know what, I got that war stopped…Now, am I going to get credit? I'm not going to get credit for anything. They don't give me credit for anything. But nobody else could have done it. I stopped it. I was very proud of that," he added. Speaking on the American role in the conflict, Tharoor said he is 'guessing to some degree" that their priority would have been to keep themselves informed, conversations on both sides, and 'certainly my government received a number of calls at high levels from the US government". At the same time, the US must have been making similar calls at the highest levels to the Pakistan side, and 'our assumption is that's where, because that's the side that needed persuading to stop this process," he said. India has been maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries. (with PTI inputs) First Published: June 07, 2025, 09:04 IST
Time of India
43 minutes ago
- Time of India
North Korea internet hit by a major outage, analyst says
North Korea is grappling with a significant internet outage, impacting key websites like its main news outlets and the Foreign Ministry. A UK-based researcher suggests the disruption, affecting all internet routes, appears to be internal rather than a cyberattack. The country's entire internet infrastructure is currently undetectable by monitoring systems, raising questions about the cause. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads North Korea's internet is experiencing a major outage on Saturday, said a UK-based researcher, adding that the cause may be may be internal rather than a cyberattack North Korea's main news web sites and its Foreign Ministry internet site were inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to checks by Reuters."A major outage is currently occurring on North Korea's internet - affecting all routes whether they come in via China or Russia," said Junade Ali, a U.K.-based researcher who monitors the North Korean Korea's entire internet infrastructure is not showing up on systems that can monitor internet activities, he said."Hard to say if this is intentional or accidental - but seems like this is internal rather than an attack," he at South Korea 's Police cyber terror response centre which monitors North Korea's cyber activities could not be reached for comment.
