SC orders release of BJP activist arrested for sharing Mamata's morphed picture, asked to apologise
New Delhi, May 14 (IBNS): The Supreme Court has ordered release of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist Priyanka Sharma who was arrested for sharing a morphed picture of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee but also asked her to apologise immediately, media reports said.
Sharma got a conditional bail after she moved the top court on Monday.
The photo was a morphed image of Banerjee photoshopped on actress Priyanka Chopra's Met Gala look.
Sharma was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a court.
Sharma has been charged under Section 500 of the IPC (defamation), and Sections 66A (offensive messages) and the non-bailable 67A (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
According to media reports, a police complaint by a Trinamool leader read that "this act broke the community guidelines and it was being viewed as an issue of violence."
"She not just tries to insult our Hon’ble Chief Minister, but she trying to insult the culture of our Bengal by her post on Facebook and which is Cyber Crime,” the complaint read, according to a daily.
A First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against her at Dasnagar Police Station in Howrah district.
While the latest arrest is owing to a morphed photo of Mamata from a controversial outfit worn by a Bollywood actress that was trolled on social media in Twitter, this is not the first such case as a professor from Kolkata was arrested in 2012 for sharing Trinamool or Mamata Banerjee's caricatured images on social media.
Following the arrest, an outrage broke out on social media with #ISupportPriyankaSharma being the number one hashtag trend on Twitter.
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