In a huge embarrassment to Mamata Banerjee, the Supreme Court raps West Bengal government with a show cause notice over a contempt petition filed over the delay in releasing the activist who was arrested for posting a meme of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on social media.
According to the reports, the petition has been filed in the apex court after West Bengal deliberately delayed the release of activist Priyanka Sharma, despite the Supreme Court order of granting bail to her.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued notices to the state government and others on the contempt plea filed by the activist’s brother Rajib Sharma.
Priyanka Sharma, a BJP Yuva Morcha leader, was arrested on May 10 by the West Bengal Police under section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and under provisions of the Information Technology Act. She was slapped with a non-bailable warrant and was later taken into 14-day custody by the West Bengal Police.
However, on May 14, a vacation bench of the Supreme Court had granted bail to Priyanka Sharma. The judges initially told Priyanka Sharma that she would have to apologise if she wanted a bail. As her lawyer had strongly objected the directive, the judges later cleared that Priyanka Sharma’s apology wasn’t a condition for her release on bail.
Later after her release, Sharma had alleged that she was kept in custody for 18 hours by the West Bengal police despite the Supreme Court order to release her with immediate effect yesterday. She was released in the morning today but before that, she was forced to sign an apology declaring that she would not post such content in future.
Rajib Sharma has now approached the Supreme Court alleging that there was a delay of over 24 hours in releasing his sister from jail, despite the court’s May 14 order.
