Complainant in Sharmishta Panoli case booked for hurting religious sentiments

The Kolkata Police stated on Wednesday that the man whose complaint led to the arrest of 22-year-old law student Sharmishta Panoli has been booked for posting “malicious and inflammatory” content on social media, reported PTI.

However, the man, identified as 30-year-old Wajahat Khan Qadri, was absconding, an unidentified police officer told the news agency. “We have started an investigation into the case,” said the officer.

Qadri was booked under the same sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita as Panoli – promoting enmity between different groups, deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizens, intentional insult with the intent to provoke a breach of peace and statements that incite public mischief, The Indian Express quoted an unidentified police officer as saying.

Panoli, a fourth-year business and law student at a Pune university, was arrested by the Kolkata Police in Gurugram on May 30 for her remarks about Prophet Muhammad on social media. She deleted the post later and issued an apology on X.

A case was filed against Panoli based on Qadri’s complaints at Kolkata’s Garden Reach Police Station on May 15. An arrest warrant had been issued against her on May 17, after which she was arrested from Gurugram, brought to Kolkata on a transit remand and remanded to judicial custody till June...

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