The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Monday demanded the immediate release of Instagram influencer and Pune law graduate Sharmishta Panoli, who Kolkata Police arrested for her controversial posts on Operation Sindoor.
“I stand firmly with Sharmishta Panoli, whose arrest and judicial custody for a now deleted social media video — despite her immediate apology — represents an absolute failure of justice and a blatant assault on freedom of expression,” BCI chairperson and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra said in a statement.
“The Bengal government and Kolkata Police have once again proved their pattern of excessive, selective and politically motivated action, targeting individuals from particular communities while ignoring or even shielding far more egregious acts by others,” he added.
Mishra, also a Rajya Sabha member, said history bore witness to the “atrocities and violence perpetrated against specific groups in West Bengal, often with the complicity or direct involvement of government entities and political actors”.
Mishra listed the Marichjhanpi massacre, Nandigram violence, the Murshidabad riots and “repeated political killings” as “glaring examples of this dangerous appeasement politics” of the state government.