Complaint filed against man whose FIR led to law student Sharmistha Panoli’s arrest

KOLKATA: Following the arrest of social media influencer Sharmistha Panoli for hurting religious sentiments, a complaint has been filed against Wazahat Khan Qadri — the man whose FIR led to the law student’s arrest.

Prasun Maitra, an NGO president from North 24 Parganas, lodged a police complaint accusing Wazahat of repeatedly posting abusive, anti-Hindu posts from an X account.

In his complaint to the Kolkata police and Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Maitra said, “This is to draw your attention to the following tweets (now deleted) by one Wazahat Khan Qadri Rashidi with the identity of X handle of @rashidi_wazahat hurting religious sentiments of millions of Hindus across the globe. The screenshots of the tweets are enclosed.”

“Your (Kolkata police) recent activism shows that you are very much against such communally instigating posts and determined to enforce the rule of law. In view of the above, you are requested to initiate appropriate legal action against the person, described above, in line with your recent activities and as per law of the land so that your integrity doesn’t come under any question,” he said in the complaint.

A 22-year-old law student from Pune, Sharmistha Panoli, was arrested by Kolkata Police in Gurugram on Friday for allegedly hurting religious sentiments with a video on Operation Sindoor. The Instagram clip, reportedly derogatory towards a particular religion, was later deleted. She also issued an unconditional apology on X and was remanded to judicial custody till June 13.

On Saturday, Panoli was produced before the Alipore Court in Kolkata, which remanded her in judicial custody for 14 days.

According to the Kolkata Police, several attempts were made to serve legal notices to Panoli and her family, but the attempts were unsuccessful because Panoli and her family absconded.

Subsequently, an arrest warrant was issued by the court, based on which she was arrested from Gurugram on Friday night.

“The case relates to an Instagram video by a lady named Sharmishta Panoli that hurt the religious sentiments of a particular community. FIR was lodged in Garden Reach Police Station. Attempts to serve notice as per law couldn’t be successful since the accused, with her family absconded. Subsequently, warrant of arrest was issued by the court of law, based on which she was arrested from Gurgaon yesterday,” as per the Kolkata Police.

However, Panoli had deleted the video and issued an apology on May 15. (ANI)