A Kolkata court on Saturday ordered social media influencer Sharmishta Panoli to stay in judicial custody for 14 days. She was arrested because of a video that hurt religious feelings. Sharmishta Panoli, a 22-year-old law student from Pune, was caught by Kolkata Police on the night of May 30 in Gurugram, Haryana.
She was charged for a video about something called Operation Sindoor, where she made some comments about the minority community. Kolkata Police said they tried many times to send legal notices to her and her family, but could not find them.
Finally, they arrested her in Gurugram after getting a court order.
The problem started with a video Sharmishta posted on Instagram on May 14. In the video, she replied to a question from a Pakistani follower about India’s military action after a terror attack in Pahalgam. In that video, she reportedly said disrespectful things about Islam and Prophet Muhammad. She also criticized Bollywood actors for not speaking up about the issue.
The video quickly became very popular and many people were upset by it.
Afterwards, Sharmishta said she received threats to her life and safety.
On May 15, she deleted the video and apologized publicly on the social media platform X.
