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Complaint filed against Kolkata man who lodged FIR against Sharmishta Panoli
Harikrishna Pai, DCP (Port) said Prasun Maitra’s complaint will be looked into and action taken according to law
KOLKATA: A police complaint has been filed against a 30-year-old Kolkata resident, whose May 14 complaint led to the arrest of a 22-year-old law student for a social media post from Gurugram, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.
Sharmishta Panoli, a law student and a social media influencer, was arrested by a team of Kolkata Police from Gurugram in Haryana on May 30 on charges of spreading communal hatred. She was produced before a Kolkata court and remanded in judicial custody till June 13.
Panoli’s arrest on Friday night was made on a complaint filed by Kolkata resident Wazahat Khan Qadri Rashidi with the Garden Reach police station and ignited a political row, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticising Panoli’s arrest on the ground that she had already deleted the video and apologised for it.
As the Kolkata police defended its decision to arrest her, Prasun Maitra, a human rights activist, on Monday filed a formal complaint against Rashidi for the two now-deleted posts on the social media platform X, which he said, hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.
Maitra, who emailed his complaint to Kolkata police commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma and other top officers, also attached screenshots of Rashidi’s posts.
“Your 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,” said Maitra in his complaint.
Maitra followed up on his complaint several hours later, noting that the police were yet to register a first information report (FIR) on the basis of his complaint.
Asked, a senior Kolkata police officer said appropriate action will be taken by the police.
Harikrishna Pai, deputy commissioner of police (Port) said Maitra’s complaint will be looked into and action taken according to law.
“Whatever complaint we get, we will definitely take legal action. He (Maitra) has sent his complaint to several officers,” Pai told HT.
Garden Reach police station is in the Port Division of the Kolkata police.
HT made repeated attempts to contact Rashidi, but his mobile phone was switched off.
Rashidi filed his complaint against Panoli on May 14, identifying himself as general secretary of the Rashidi Foundation based at Paharpur Road.
The FIR was registered on May 15 after Tanmoy Samui, the officer-in-charge of Garden Reach police station directed sub-inspector P Tamang to register the case and asked inspector N Akhtar to “take up the investigation.”
HT has seen a copy of the first information report (FIR) registered on May 15 under sections 196 (1) (a), 299, 352 and 352 (1) (c) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
HT tried to contact Tanmoy Samui to enquire why Panoli was booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 299). But the duty officer at the police station said Samui was not available. Inspector N Akhtar, the investigating officer, could not be contacted either.
When many social media users criticised Panoli’s arrest, the Kolkata Police defended its action on X on Sunday.
In a post, police said some social media accounts were spreading false information that Kolkata Police had unlawfully arrested a law student for opposing Pakistan. “This narrative is mischievous and misleading. Expressing national pride and patriotism is a thing that every citizen and organisation stands for. Kolkata Police being no different, stands firmly with the citizens of India,” the post said,
It added that the Panoli case was registered “on the basis of allegations that she posted a video which was insulting to the religious beliefs of a class of citizens of India and amounted to promoting disharmony and hatred between different communities. “The case was registered under appropriate sections of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita. The case was duly investigated and, adhering to legal procedures, several attempts were made to serve notice u/s 35 of BNSS to the accused but everytime she was found absconding,” the Kolkata police said.
“Kolkata Police acted lawfully according to the procedure established by law. The accused was not arrested for expressing patriotism or for personal belief; legal actions were taken for sharing offensive content which promotes hatred among the communities,” it added.
