Kolkata, June 5 The Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari claimed that the observations made by the Calcutta High Court while granting interim bail to Sharmistha Panoli, the law student arrested by Kolkata Police on charges of hurting religious sentiments, proved how hyper-active the state police administration is on selective cases just to please the ruling Trinamool Congress.
While welcoming the interim bail granted by the single-judge vacation bench of Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury on Thursday, the Leader of the Opposition, in a post on X, said that justice was served to Panoli.
According to Adhikari, her arrest for a social media post, which she deleted later and also apologised for posting, proved the atrocities by Kolkata Police on an “innocent young lady”.
“This is yet another example of police overzealousness and eagerness to please its political masters,” Adhikari said.
This is not the first time Adhikari has criticised the police authorities over Panoli’s arrest. Earlier, he claimed that the police, which became hyperactive in cases like that of Panoli, became inactive when several heavyweight Trinamool Congress leaders made comments hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindus.
BJP state president in West Bengal and the Union Minister of State, Sukanta Majumdar, also welcomed the bail order and said this case was yet another glaring example of Trinamool Congress’ appeasement politics, where the law was misused and critics were targeted.
In fact, certain observations from the single-judge vacation bench while granting interim bail for Panoli earlier in the day could be quite embarrassing for the police. The bench observed that the arrest warrant issued against Panoli was mechanical in nature, and it was done without a proper evaluation of whether there was a cognizable offence in the matter.
The court also noted that the process of serving notice was going on when she was out of Kolkata.
An FIR was registered against Panoli at Garden Reach Police Station on May 15 for posting an Instagram video, where she made some objectionable comments related to 'Operation Sindoor' that had reportedly hurt the religious sentiments of a particular community.
In the face of strong criticism, the law student deleted that video. She also tendered a public apology for the matter. However, she was arrested on May 30 from Gurugram.
On May 31, the trial court in Kolkata had sent her to judicial custody till June 13.
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