The father of 22-year-old social media influencer and law student Sharmishta Panoli on Wednesday rejected Kolkata Police’s claim that she had run away after police served her notice following the registration of an FIR against her for hate speech. Instead, he said, that her daughter had approached the cyber cell of Kolkata Police on May 15 to complain about the threats she has been receiving following her Instagram posts.
In a video and written statement released by her father, Prithviraj Panoli, he said: “Sharmistha was in Pune till May 15. Due to the social media post, she was getting a lot of threat calls and she called me around midnight on May 14 asking me what to do. On May 15, we met senior cyber cell officers at Lal Bazar.”
He said that he and his daughter went to Anandapur Police Station, which is under the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police, seven times between May 15 and May 19 to register online and mobile threats received by her.
“I was in touch with Lalbazar police till May 26 through WhatsApp communications, since all our normal calls were deactivated to avoid the online and mobile threats from all over India and abroad. From May 22 onwards, Sharmistha started her internship in Delhi. She continued with her internship till May 29 till West Bengal Police arrested her on May 30,” her father claimed.
Prithviraj Panoli also accused the police of not providing him with the copy of the FIR registered against his daughter.
“Out of fear, we went to Delhi. We or Sharmistha were not absconding or running away from the police,” he said.
“As per information received, West Bengal Police conducted searches at places like Saharanpur, Noida, and Ghaziabad, even though we were in a single hotel in Gurugram for the entire period from May 20 till May 30, till Sharmistha was arrested,” he claimed.
Panoli was arrested from Gurgaon, Haryana, by the Kolkata Police on May 30. She was brought to Kolkata on transit remand and remanded to judicial custody till June 13.
Her interim bail plea was rejected by the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday.