Calcutta high court grants interim bail to influencer Sharmistha Panoli

The Calcutta high court on Thursday granted interim bail to influencer Sharmistha Panoli, who was arrested for her alleged controversial social media comments, sources reported.

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The court has directed the social media influencer to furnish a bail bond of ₹10,000.

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 had deleted the post and also issued an apology.

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 court had also directed the West Bengal government to produce the case diary on June 5.

Panoli's lawyer claimed that no offence is made out in the complaint filed against her for allegedly making some remarks on social media during the Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.

He claimed that there was a war of words on social media between users across India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, which was undertaken by India in response to the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed the lives of 26 men, most of whom were tourists.