The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the release of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing worker Priyanka Sharma, who was arrested in West Bengal last week for sharing on social media a morphed picture of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The apex court asked her to apologise immediately after her release. Sharma was given conditional bail.
She was arrested on Friday by the West Bengal police for allegedly sharing a morphed picture of Mamata Banerjee on social media, and her lawyer moved Supreme Court against the arrest yesterday.
Produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Howrah on Saturday, Sharma had been slapped with non-bailable charges and sent to judicial custody for two weeks.
She was accused of sharing a morphed picture of Banerjee, where the CM’s face was photoshopped with that of Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra. The original picture is that of Priyanka Chopra’s appearance at the MET Gala event in New York City last week.
Sharma was booked under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (defamation), and Sections 66A (offensive messages) along with the non-bailable 67A (punishable for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act etc. in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
