Hindu influencer who was doxxed and given sar tan se juda threats by Muslim mob for condemning Islamist terror arrested by West Bengal police

Case ID : 0d798bb | Location : Kolkata, West Bengal, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 29 May, 2025

Case ID : 0d798bb

Kolkata, West Bengal, India

29 May, 2025

Hindu influencer who was doxxed and given sar tan se juda threats by Muslim mob for condemning Islamist terror arrested by West Bengal police

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked over 'Blasphemy'

Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim

Case Summary

The 22-year-old Hindu social media influencer Sharmishta Panoli was arrested by the Kolkata Police on May 30. She is the same Hindu influencer who received death threats, rape threats and 'sar tan se juda' (STSJ) threats by Muslim extremists after she posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) and expressed her opinion on the contemporary situation, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. She was arrested due to her now deleted video criticising Pakistan and responding angrily to Pakistani trolls who denied the religious motive behind the Pahalgam Hindu massacre. Although the video contained expletives and emotionally charged language, it was deleted shortly after it went viral, and Sharmishtha also issued an apology. Despite this, the West Bengal police travelled from Kolkata to Gurgaon, covering approximately 1500 kilometres, just to arrest her. It is important to mention here that while the West Bengal police arrested the Hindu girl for just expressing outrage over terrorism, the Muslims who had issued death and rape threats to the Hindu influencer were not arrested. The incident reflects the West Bengal government's pattern of selective law enforcement under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The arrest of Sharmishtha should not be viewed in isolation but as part of a broader pattern of vote-bank politics, where the administration is seen as shielding Islamist offenders while clamping down on Hindu voices that dissent or express nationalist sentiment.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim. In several cases, Hindus are attacked for opposing religiously motivated crimes being committed against a fellow Hindu or simply for voicing an opinion opposing radical elements, who either have in the past or continue to persecute Hindus. In such cases, the initial attack against the victim, against which the Hindu was trying to defend the victim, would also need to be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Since the initial crime itself was religiously motivated and the subsequent crime of attempting to save the victim or speaking against the radical elements ends up inviting a violent attack, it would also be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. The other sub-category relevant here is: - Attacked over 'Blasphemy'. Blasphemy essentially refers to the desecration of anything which is held sacred/holy to a group of people. However, for religious supremacist groups, the elements of ‘blasphemy’ are ever-changing, shifting and expanding – leading to infringement on the rights of other religious groups, freedom of speech and expression, threats and even physical violence. There are instances where blasphemy is also used as a dog whistle to target Hindus owing to intrinsic animosity towards Hinduism. There are several instances where stating truths as mentioned in the non-Hindu doctrine itself has led to unmitigated violence against Hindus. There have also been instances where non-Hindus have themselves created a ‘blasphemous’ situation, like placing a Quran in a temple, to use it as an excuse to attack Hindus. Essentially, Blasphemy charges are often made up and/or are used to shut down any form of criticism of non-Hindu faiths and as a tool to target Hindus. Any physical violence over Blasphemy charges against Hindus are foundationally based on animosity for Hindus and their faith owing to religious supremacist ideologies, therefore, such attacks would be documented as religious motivated hate crimes under this category. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman, Sharmishtha, was arrested by the West Bengal Police on blasphemy-like allegations after she criticised Pakistani trolls who attempted to deny the religious motive behind the Pahalgam Hindu massacre. Although she had deleted the video and issued a public apology, the West Bengal Police still travelled over 1500 km just to arrest her. This arrest is an infringement on the right to freedom of speech, which is a fundamental right in India, by the Mamata Banerjee government. This decision reflects political and religious bias against Hindus and is consistent with previous actions taken by the West Bengal government under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. This case does not exist in isolation. It forms part of a broader pattern wherein Hindus have been targeted in West Bengal, just for practising their faith. For example, Hindus have been arrested for chanting "Jai Shri Ram", denied permission for religious processions such as Ram Navami, and faced state censorship or intimidation for exercising their cultural and religious rights. In 2019, for instance, West Bengal police had arrested at least 10 people from Barrackpore for chanting slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in North 24 Parganas at Mamata Banerjee’s convoy. Mamata Banerjee also claimed that people chanting Jai Shri Ram were criminals. Furthermore, CM Mamata Banerjee's stoic silence whenever Hindus get attacked by Islamists in the state, combined with the fact that the Mamata Government has, in the past, passed umpteen prejudicial orders to clamp down on the religious rights of Hindus and show her affinity towards the Muslims in the state. The West Bengal state administration has been consistently and disproportionately targeting Hindus for expressing religious opinions, particularly when such speech is even remotely directed towards Muslims or Islam. In this case, Sharmishtha’s remarks were aimed at Pakistani Muslims, yet the West Bengal Police chose to arrest her rather than the Islamists who gave her death/rape threats, revealing the selective application of law. This underscores a broader strategy by the Mamata government to placate the Muslim vote bank, even at the cost of Hindu civil liberties. This incident must also be seen in the broader context of West Bengal's law-and-order approach under Mamata Banerjee’s administration, which has repeatedly shown a pattern of shielding Islamist offenders while disproportionately targeting Hindus. When Hindus in Murshidabad and Sandeshkhali were subjected to horrific violence, including sexual exploitation, arson, and forced conversions, the state machinery turned a blind eye or actively downplayed the incidents. The arrest of Sharmishtha stands in sharp contrast to the state’s failure to act in cases of mass violence against Hindus, reinforcing the perception that the law is not being applied evenly but is driven by religious and political considerations. The targeting of Sharmishtha for voicing her opinion in response to Pahalgam Hindu massacre, while shielding Islamists who gave her rape and death threats, including sar tan se juda threats, exemplifies how Hindus can be criminalised merely for expressing their opinion. It sends a chilling message: in today’s Bengal, criticism of certain religious beliefs can invite arrest, but actual violence against Hindus can be ignored.