BCI chairman seeks release, fair trial for arrested Insta influencer Sharmishta Panoli

New Delhi: Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra on Sunday called for immediate release and fair trial for Sharmishta Panoli, the Instagram influencer who was arrested by Kolkata Police for allegedly making a post claiming the Hindi film actors were silent on Operation Sindoor.

The senior advocate and Rajya Sabha member said that he was standing firmly with Panoli, whose arrest and judicial custody for a now-deleted social media video despite her immediate apology represented "an absolute failure of justice and a blatant assault on freedom of expression".

The 22-year-old influencer, a resident of Kolkata and enrolled in Pune's Law University, was arrested from Gurugram on Friday night.

She was on Saturday produced before a Kolkata court, which sent her in judicial custody till June 13.

"It is deeply troubling that the same government that opposed Operation Sindoor -- a decisive counter-terror operation -- meant to avenge the brutal killing of innocents, now seeks to silence a young law student for questioning such similar double standards," said Mishra in a statement.

A mere wrong choice of words cannot be called blasphemous and a young law student being made a scapegoat and subjected to harsh legal action, while past atrocities on particular communities by the government-sponsored persons and entities remained unaddressed was "unconscionable", the statement added.

"True democracy demands impartiality, restraint and the equal protection of rights, not selective outrage and vendetta," the statement said.

"I call upon the Bengal government and its police to abandon this dangerous path of targeting select voices and to uphold the rule of law for all. I demand Sharmishta's immediate release, a fair trial, and an end to the double standards that have long plagued the state's administration of justice," said Mishra.