Kolkata: Wajahat Khan, the man, whose FIR at the Garden Reach police station on May 15, led to the arrest of the 22-year law student Sharmishta Panoli from Gurugram on May 30, was arrested on Monday by the Kolkata Police.
While Panoli was arrested on charges of hurting the religious sentiments of a particular community and promoting hatred through a video that she posted on social media, Khan was also arrested on somewhat similar charges of spreading hate speech and hurting religious sentiments through social media.
An FIR was lodged against Khan at the Golf Green police station in Kolkata based on the complaint lodged by an independent organisation Shree Ram Swabhiman Parishad of allegedly insulting the Hindu religious deities, Hindu rituals, and the people of the community.
Three consecutive notices were served at Khan’s residence at Garden Reach asking him to be present at the local police station for questioning.
However, Khan continued to be on the run since then, and finally, on Monday he was arrested by the officials of the city police.
Earlier on June 5, the Calcutta High Court granted interim bail for Sharmishta against a personal bond of Rs 10,000.
While granting her the interim bail, the Calcutta High Court also observed that the arrest warrant issued against Sharmishta was mechanical and it was done without proper evaluation of whether there was a cognisable offence in the matter.
The court also noted that the process of serving notice was going on when she was out of Kolkata.
Khan filed the FIR against Sharmishta on May 15, for posting an Instagram video, where she made some objectionable comments related to ‘Operation Sindoor’ that had reportedly hurt the religious sentiments of a particular community.
In the face of strong criticism, the law student deleted that video.
She also tendered a public apology for the matter.
However, she was arrested on May 30 from Gurugram.
On May 31, the trial court in Kolkata sent her to judicial custody till June 13.
The BJP’s Bengal unit questioned the “overnight” action of the Kolkata Police against her and called the move by the city police a “vote bank vendetta”.
(IANS)
