All Eyes On Sharmistha”: Arrested Influencer Gets Dutch Support

New Delhi:

Sharmishta Panoli, a 22-year-old influencer arrested by Kolkata Police for communally-charged social media posts, has received support from nearly 7,000 km away. Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch Parliament and the leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom, has said the influencer’s arrest is a “disgrace for freedom of speech” and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure she is freed.

“Free the brave Sharmishta Panoli! It’s a disgrace for the freedom of speech that she was arrested. Don’t punish her for speaking the truth about Pakistan and Muhammad. Help her @narendramodi,” Wilders said in a post on X. The photo with the post read, “All eyes on Sharmistha.”

Kolkata Police yesterday arrested Sharmistha Panoli, a 22-year-old law student, over social media videos in which she used abusive and communally-charged language and also targeted Bollywood actors for not speaking out during Operation Sindoor, India’s counterstrike to the Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 innocents dead.

The influencer’s arrest has sparked a political row, with the BJP and its allies targeting the Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal. The FIR against Sharmistha Panoli, filed after a complaint in Kolkata, invokes Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections linked to promoting enmity on grounds of religion, deliberate acts to outrage religious feelings and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace. She was produced in court and remanded in judicial custody for 14 days