Kolkata, May 13: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on urgent basis a plea moved by BJP youth wing worker Priyanka Sharma, who was arrested last week for sharing a meme on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. A bench headed by Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Sanjiv Khanna will take up the matter for hearing tomorrow.
Sharma is the Howrah district club convenor of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) - the youth wing of the saffron party. She was taken into custody on Friday after a local Trinamool Congress leader registered complaint against her. The Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court on Saturday sent her to 14-day custody.
She has been slapped with charges under IPC section 500 (defamation) along with Sections 66A (offensive messages) and the non-bailable 67A of the Information Technology Act.
The 25-year-old landed in row after she shared on her Facebook profile a morphed picture which showed Mamata's photo superimposed on actor-model Priyanka Chopra, who walked the ramp at Met Gala 2019 in dior outfit.
The BJP has opposed her arrest, accusing the Trinamool regime of deliberately targeting her despite the image emanating from another source. "She had only shared it like scores of other social media users," said a local party leader.
BJP Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh, meanwhile, charged Mamata Banerjee of imposing an undeclared emergency. He appealed the people to uproot the Trinamool regime which is "muzzling dissent" across the state.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 13, 2019 11:32 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).