NEW DELHI: The Bar Council of Delhi has demanded the immediate release of Instagram influencer Sharmistha Panoli, who was arrested by Kolkata Police for her social media remarks concerning Operation Sindoor.
Panoli, a 22-year-old law student from Kolkata studying in Pune, was arrested late on May 30 in Gurugram. She was taken to Kolkata and produced before a court, which remanded her to judicial custody till June 13. In a statement on Monday, Bar Council of Delhi Chairman Surya Prakash Khatri said, “The Bar Council of Delhi strongly condemns the arrest of Sharmistha Panoli over a social media video, despite the fact that she immediately deleted it and apologised when some people found it hurtful.”
“I, on behalf of the Bar Council of Delhi, demand her immediate release to uphold the scale of justice,” he added. Khatri criticised the “high-handedness and unnecessary haste” of Kolkata Police, calling the arrest “selective, excessive, and politically motivated.”
Panoli has been booked under IPC sections related to promoting enmity.