The BJP's youth wing will challenge the Supreme Court order asking its activist Priyanka Sharma to apologise for posting a meme of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on social media. The party's youth wing chief Poonam Mahajan on Tuesday asserted that the verdict has sent out a "wrong message".
The court earlier Tuesday granted bail to Sharma, against whom a complaint was filed in Bengal for sharing a photo in which Banerjee's face was photoshopped onto actor Priyanka Chopra's picture from a MET Gala event in New York.
The apex court also asked Sharma to apologise in writing on her release from jail. It observed freedom of speech ends when it infringes upon the rights of others.
Mahajan said she was "delighted" with the SC order and "grateful" to the court for releasing Sharma on bail. "But the direction of apology sends out a wrong message on the question of free speech," she said.
"In July, when the writ petition is coming up, we are going to contest it because this is a bigger issue," said Mahajan.
West Bengal police arrested Sharma on May 10 under section 500 (defamation) of the IPC and under other provisions of the Information Technology Act on the complaint of local Trinamool Congress leader Vibhas Hazra. BJP leaders and social media users have protested Sharma's arrest.
"We have been battling the TMC in Bengal for two years and many of our activists have been arrested, beaten up and even killed by their goons. This has exposed how anarchy has spread in Bengal and how in Mamata didi's rule, freedom of expression has been strangled to death," Mahajan alleged.