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The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to Centre and certain states on a plea filed by Wazahat Khan, the man whose complaint led to the arrest of influencer Sharmistha Panoli, seeking clubbing of FIRs lodged against him across multiple states for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through his social media posts.
A vacation bench of Justices KV Viswanathan and N Kotiswar Singh issued notices to the government of Assam, West Bengal, Delhi and Haryana and posted the matter for hearing on July 14. "These hate speeches lead us nowhere," said Justice Viswanathan to Khan's counsel. On request of Khan's counsel, the bench further ordered that as an interim measure till the next hearing date, no coercive action shall be taken against him for the FIRs registered or may be registered, which are similar. The bench noted that Khan was arrested in two cases registered in West Bengal and was in police custody in the FIR registered by the Golf Link Police Station, Kolkata, and was remanded to judicial custody in the other Bengal FIR. Justice Viswanathan invoked a saying that wounds inflicted by fire may heal, but not the wounds inflicted by the tongue. During the hearing, Khan's lawyer said that cases have been registered against him nationwide in retaliation for his complaint against the social media influencer Panoli. Khan is "reaping as he has sown" but he has apologised for the tweet, after having "learnt the lesson the hard way", said the counsel. Khan, whose complaint led to influencer Sharmistha Panoli's arrest on May 30, was himself arrested on June 9 in Kolkata's Amherst Street area. Multiple FIRs were filed against Khan, including one in Assam, for "allegedly spreading hatred on social media and hurting religious sentiments," according to Kolkata Police officials. Panoli had posted a video on social media and allegedly made communal comments after Operation Sindoor, after the Pahalgam attack, which left at least 26 people dead in Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)
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