SC grants relief to man who filed plaint against Panoli

The Supreme Court on Monday granted interim protection from coercive action till July 14 to Wazahat Khan, on whose complaint social media influencer Sharmistha Panoli was arrested for allegedly making communal remarks in a video.

The Kolkata police arrested Panoli from Gurugram on May 30 after her videos on social media led to widespread outrage. She was booked by the police in Kolkata on May 15. The Calcutta High Court granted her interim bail on June 5.

Acting on a petition filed by Khan, who was arrested by the West Bengal Police and was in custody, a Bench of Justice KV Viswanathan and Justice N Kotiswar Singh protected him from coercive action by the police of Assam, Maharashtra and Haryana for his old tweets that had allegedly hurt religious sentiments.

Khan was arrested by the Kolkata police on June 9. He moved the top court alleging that FIRs and complaints have been lodged against him in several states for his old tweets. The FIRs were allegedly in retaliation to a complaint filed by him against Panoli.