BJP youth neta: Made to sign apology letter despite protest

Kolkata: BJP youth wing leader Priyanka Sharma on Wednesday alleged she was made to sign an apology letter against her wishes by jail officials before she was released from Alipore Women’s Correctional Home on Wednesday after executing a personal bond.
The 26-year-old Howrah resident was arrested on May 10 after she shared a meme, a morphed image of chief minister Mamata Banerjee on an image of actor Priyanka Chopra.
The bail application was filed in the Supreme Court as lawyers of Calcutta High Court were on strike.
Sharma alleged jail officials refused to release her unless she signed an apology letter that she claimed was dictated to her by four jail officials who surrounded her in the jailer’s office.
Advocate Sourabh Choudhary, who was among the counsels for Sharma in the Supreme Court, said the bail order did not lay down any condition.
Prime Minister Narenda Modi, during a rally in Diamond Harbour on Wednesday, referred to the incident and said “if any youth cracks a joke or pulls out a political satire, he/she is sent to jail”.
Sharma told TOI: “I was getting suffocated in jail where I was bundled with about 50 inmates. I was desperate to get out. Jail officials did not allow my lawyer to enter. They pressured me to write and sign the apology letter dictated by them in the absence of my lawyer.”
“The meme is being shared by thousands on social media. I did not create it. I just posted it and used no abusive language. I have been victimised just because I am a BJP worker,” said Sharma, who is the Howrah district convenor of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha since October last year. She added that she deleted the post once she was told an FIR had been filed against her.
“There are so many cartoons caricaturing political figures. In such circumstances, people will get arrested left and right. We are talking about tolerance. Is this tolerance? Is this democracy?” she said.
Sharma, a BJP supporter for long, helps her mother Rajkumari run a kerosene oil dealership in Howrah’s Dasnagar after her father passed away 13 years ago.