Sharmishta Panoli

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sharmistha Panoli

• Sharmistha Panoli was born in a Hindu family.

  

• She liked studying and got 84.80% marks in 10th standard and 90.6% marks in 12th standard.

  

• She later studied law in Pune and also began uploading videos on social media about trending topics. Till the 6th semester of her college degree, she had a 7.129 CGPA.

  

• From February to March 2022, she worked as a legal intern under Advocate Dipendra Nath Chunder, associated with the Kolkata High Court.

• She interned as a content writer at the Lawyers Club India from February to April 2022.

• Between July to August 2022, she worked as an intern at an NGO named Umeed-A Drop of Hope.

• She worked as a legal intern at S. Majumdar & Co. from July to August 2023, at Khaitan & Co. from February to March 2024, and at J. Sagar Associates (JSA) from July to August 2024.

• In August 2024, she was an in-house counsel for ITC Limited.

  

• From June to September 2024, she served as the Chief Marketing Officer at WakthPeVakeel.com.

• She worked as a legal intern at Adab Singh Kapoor & Associates between January and February 2025.

• She made headlines in May 2025 after Operation Sindoor, when she uploaded a video in which she allegedly used foul language against the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

• She also made videos criticising the silence of Bollywood celebrities on Operation Sindoor.

• Many people started trolling her on X, and #ArrestSharmishta began trending on the platform.

• After the public backlash, she posted an unconditional apology on her Instagram story and on X on May 15.

  

• On 31 May 2025, she was arrested in Gurugram by the Kolkata Police after the FIR number 136 was lodged against her at the Garden Reach Police Station.

  

• Wajahat Khan, General Secretary of Rashidi Foundation, Kolkata, filed the FIR against her with complaints of disrupting social harmony.

  

• He also attached photos from her Instagram account and Twitter account.

  

• The FIR was lodged under Sections 196(1)(a) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste, or community), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizens), 352 ( intentional insult with the intent to provoke a breach of peace), and 353(1)(c) (statements that incite public mischief) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

• Kolkata police claimed that many warrants were sent, but she escaped them, after which they arrested her on 30 May.

• After her arrest, actress and politician Kangana Ranaut supported her and demanded her release.

  

• She was first presented in a Gurugram court, which gave transit remand, after which she was presented before the Alipore court, which sent her to 13 days of judicial custody.

  

• Many people also claimed that she visited the Garden Reach police station on 16 May, one day after the FIR was filed.

• Many people trolled Kolkata Police for their actions and shared old tweets of TMC MPs Mahua Moitra and Saayoni Ghosh that allegedly mocked Hindu gods.

• As of May 2025, she had 91 thousand followers on Instagram and 86 thousand followers on Twitter.