Sharmishta Panoli, an social media content creator arrested by the Kolkata Police for alleged communal comments in a video, has been remanded to judicial custody till June 13, her lawyer said on Saturday.
Sharmishta Ponali, 22, was arrested from Haryana’s Gurugram by the Kolkata Police late Friday night and was taken to the West Bengal city, where she was produced before a court.
The content creator was arrested over a complaint against a now-deleted video she uploaded allegedly making communal comments and claiming Bollywood actors were silent on Operation Sindoor, reports said on Saturday.
Sharmishta Panoli has been booked under relevant sections for promoting enmity between different groups, malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings, apart from intentional insult, provoking breach of peace, a news agency PTI quoted a Kolkata Police officer as saying.
Sharmishta Panoli’s advocate, Md Samimuddin, said a bail application was moved before the court.
“We moved our bail application before the court, citing that the articles that have been allegedly stated by the prosecution to have been used, the mobile phone and the laptop, have already been seized. Subsequently, the court heard our prayer. The police custody prayer was sought by the prosecution, which was turned down and rejected. The accused has been remanded to judicial custody till 13th of June, 2025…,” Samimuddin said.
Who is Sharmishta Panoli
Sharmishta Panoli is reportedly a resident of Anandapur area of West Bengal’s Kolkata and enrolled in Pune’s Law University.
He public Instagram handle has 90.2k followers and no posts, however, a highlighted story of May 15 on the account features an apology note. Find out more about Sharmishta Panoli here
The highlighted story reads, “I do hereby tender m UNCONDITIONA APOLOGY whatever was put are my personal feelings and i never intentionally wanted to hurt anybody so if anybody is hurt I’m sorry for the same. I expect cooperation and understanding. Henceforth, i will be cautious in my public post. Again please accept my apologies.”