'Hygiene not being maintained': Influencer Sharmishta Panoli files plea over jail conditions

NEW DELHI: Social media influencer and law student Sharmishta Panoli's advocate has claimed that her basic rights are being denied in custody and that her health is deteriorating.

Panoli is currently lodged in Alipore Women’s Correctional Home following her arrest on 30 May for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through a now-deleted Instagram video. Speaking to reporters, Panoli’s advocate Md Samimuddin said, “We are trying our best to get her out of jail before June 13. We will sit down on the matter today and discuss it. We will take a call in one or two days about what we will do... At Alipore women’s correctional home, proper hygiene is not being maintained around her and she is unwell.

She has kidney stones. She is not being given access to newspapers and magazines.

Today we have filed a petition in the court so that she gets access to her basic rights... Sharmishta is innocent. We are trying our best to get her out on bail.”

The 22-year-old was arrested by Kolkata Police from Gurugram, Haryana, after multiple failed attempts to serve her legal notices. The police claimed she and her family had absconded.

On 1 June, a Kolkata court remanded her to 14 days’ judicial custody until 13 June. Her bail plea has since been filed, and her legal team contends that with her phone and laptop already seized, custody is unnecessary.Despite deleting the video and publicly apologising on May 15, Panoli’s arrest has stirred political and legal controversy. Kolkata Police insist the arrest was lawful and based on a court-issued warrant after repeated non-compliance with legal procedures.

“All legal procedures were duly adhered to,” they posted on X, calling social media claims of an “unlawful arrest” “factually incorrect and misleading.”The police further clarified that Panoli was not arrested for any nationalist sentiment but under the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for spreading communal disharmony. “Hate speech & abusive language should not be misconstrued as freedom of speech,” their statement added.Nevertheless, growing voices from the legal community are calling for her release. The Bar Council of Delhi condemned her arrest as excessive and politically motivated. Chairman Surya Prakash Khatri said, “Despite deleting the video and apologising, she was arrested in a high-handed manner... I demand her immediate release to uphold the scale of justice.” Bar Council of India chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra echoed similar concerns.The case has also drawn criticism from BJP leaders, with Kangana Ranaut describing the arrest as harsh. “She is a very young woman. She has her whole career and life ahead of her,” Ranaut said.