The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to grant interim bail to a 22-year-old law student who was arrested by Kolkata Police in Gurugram on Friday for remarks about Prophet Muhammad on social media, Live Law reported.

The court also directed that no new first information reports will be filed in the case.

Sharmishta Panoli, a fourth-year business and law student at a Pune university, had reportedly made the comments on Instagram that allegedly hurt religious sentiments but later deleted the post and issued an apology on X.

A case was registered against Panoli at Kolkata’s Garden Reach Police Station on May 15. An arrest warrant was issued against her on May 17, based on which she was arrested on Friday from Gurugram.

The police said that several attempts were made to serve legal notice to Panoli but she and her family were untraceable. After these efforts failed, a court issued an arrest warrant following which police tracked and arrested her from Gurugram.

Addressing this allegation before the court on Tuesday, her lawyer said that Panoli and her family went to Gurugram after people gathered outside her home and made threats.

Panoli had challenged the order passed by a trial court remanding her to 14 days in judicial custody before the High Court, Live Law reported.

Her lawyer argued that the arrest was illegal considering offences listed in the FIR were non-cognisable and that she was not served a notice before the arrest.

The FIR was filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to promoting enmity between groups, deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings, intentional insult with the intent to provoke a breach of peace and statements that incite public mischief.

While denying interim bail on Tuesday, the court said: “Look, we have freedom of speech but that doesn’t mean you will go on to hurt others. Our country is diverse, with all persons. We must be cautious by saying this.”

Several politicians, including many from the Bharatiya Janata Party, had questioned Panoli’s arrest.

On Sunday, the Kolkata Police defended the arrest, saying that “hate speech should not be misconstrued as freedom of speech”.

Also read: From Assam to Haryana, arbitrary arrests of social media users make a mockery of the Constitution