'Big lesson for Sharmistha Panoli': Dad says he didn’t like some videos, she received rape and beheading threats

Sharmistha Panoli

Sharmistha Panoli, a 22-year-old law student and social media influencer, was released on interim bail by the Calcutta High Court after spending a few days in custody. She was arrested for posting a video that allegedly hurt religious sentiments.

Her father, Prithviraj Panoli, expressed relief after her release and said the incident was a big lesson for her. “I am very happy, no father wants his daughter to be in jail. She has a kidney problem and Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is necessary for her to take medicines, but since we didn’t have the prescription, we couldn’t give her medicine in jail. This must have been a good lesson to her. She will do well from now on,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.

Prithviraj admitted that the family was not happy with some of her online posts. “She used to show us her videos. We told her we didn’t like a few of them. We even deleted some. When she posted the video that led to her arrest, we had asked her to remove it. She eventually did delete it and also apologised,” he added.

Sharmistha was arrested by Kolkata Police on May 30 from a hotel in Gurugram. The case was filed over a video she posted about ‘Operation Sindoor,’ which some viewers found communal. Even though she deleted the video and said sorry on May 15, an FIR was lodged at the Garden Reach Police Station in Kolkata.

The High Court, while granting her bail, said that the complaint did not mention any serious (cognisable) crime. The court asked her to surrender her passport, help with the investigation, and submit a personal bond of Rs 10,000. Since she had received threats after her video went viral, the court also ordered police protection for her.

Her family said that the family had to switch their phones off and remove the SIM cards due to the threats. "Sharmishta received threats of beheading, rape, acid attack, and burning," NDTV quoted him as saying.