Supreme Court Stays Arrest Of Wazahat Khan, Complainant Against Sharmistha Panoli, In FIRs Outside West Bengal Over Offensive Tweets

The Supreme Court on Monday (June 23) stayed the arrest of Wazahat Khan, the man whose complaint led to the arrest of influencer Sharmistha Panoli, in the FIRs registered in states other than West Bengal in relation to his social media posts for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.A bench of Justices KV Viswanathan and N Kotiswar Singh passed the interim order while issuing notice on Khan's writ petition seeking the consolidation of the FIRs registered in the States of Assam, Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana over his social media posts. The bench noted that Khan was arrested in two cases registered in West Bengal and is presently undergoing police custody in the FIR registered by the Golf Link Police Station, Kolkata, and was remanded to judicial custody in the other Bengal FIR.Issuing notice to the Union and the States on the petition, returnable on July 14, the bench ordered that no coercive action be taken against the petitioner in relation to the FIRs in other states or any other FIR that may be registered in future over the same allegationsSenior Advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that cases have been registered against him across the country in retaliation to a complaint made by him against the social media influencer (Sharmishta Panoli).Naidu, not endorsing the petitioner's tweets, said that the petitioner is "reaping as he has sown" but added that he has apologised for the tweet, after having "learnt the lesson the hard way." Justice Viswanathan pointed out that the petitioner has not annexed the offensive tweets in the petition. Naidu replied that the tweets were deleted and the petitioner has publicly apologised for posting them even before the registration of the cases.Presently, he has been remanded in a case registered by the West Bengal police, Naidu informed, adding that several threats are being issued against him on social media.Justice Viswanathan observed that the tweets made by the petitioner cannot come within the ambit of freedom of speech and expression. "All hate-mongering," Justice Viswanathan expressed his disapproval of the petitioner's conduct. Naidu said that the petitioner is only seeking a consolidation of all the cases against him at one place and added that he was willing to cooperate with the investigation.After dictating the order, Justice Viswanathan orally remarked, "hate speeches will not take us anywhere." The judge invoked a Tamil saying that wounds inflicted by fire may heal, but not the wounds inflicted by tongue.To recap, Sharmistha Panoli, a law student and Instagram influencer, recently faced severe backlash for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through one of her videos on social media, posted in the wake of India's Operation Sindoor. She was arrested by the Kolkata police from Gurugram pursuant to an FIR (based on Khan's complaint) and later granted interim bail by the Calcutta High Court.Khan, reportedly a co-founder of Kolkata-based Rashidi Foundation, was the complainant in the case lodged against Panoli before Kolkata police. After her arrest, he himself came under spotlight and was booked by the state police under Sections 196(1)(a)/299/352/353(1)(c) of the BNS. He was arrested in Kolkata on June 9.The allegations against him pertain to making offensive remarks against Hindu deities, festivals, etc. and spreading hatred on social media. Complaints filed against Khan claim that his posts can stoke communal tensions and disturb public order.Case Title: WAZAHAT KHAN Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS., W.P.(Crl.) No. 247/2025 Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Stays Arrest Of Wazahat Khan, Complainant Against Sharmistha Panoli, In FIRs Outside West Bengal Over Offensive Tweets

Debby Jain

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