Cops look out for 2 more activists in ‘toolkit’ case
NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: The Delhi Police on Monday issued non-bailable arrest warrants against a Mumbai lawyer and a Pune engineer for allegedly creating a “protest toolkit” backing the farmers’ agitation along with arrested climate activist Disha Ravi and allegedly collaborating with pro-Khalistani elements, officials said
Lawyer Nikita Jacob and engineer Shantanu, who are absconding, attended a Zoom meeting organised by pro-Khalistani group Poetic Justice Foundation, joint commissioner of police (cyber cell) Prem Nath said at a press conference in Delhi.
Nath said 22-year-old activist Ravi, who was arrested by the force on Saturday from Bengaluru, sent the toolkit to Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg via the Telegram app. He said that Ravi deleted a WhatsApp group she created to spread the toolkit.
“Ravi, Shantanu and Jacob created and edited the toolkit. Ravi sent the toolkit to Greta Thunberg through the Telegram app. Ravi deleted a WhatsApp group which she created to spread the toolkit,” he said.
Ravi was arrested from Bengaluru on Saturday and sent to police remand for five days by a Delhi court on Sunday with officials claiming she was an editor of the “toolkit Google doc” and “key conspirator” in its formulation and dissemination.
Thunberg had shared the
“toolkit” to lend her support to the farmers’ agitation against the three farm reform laws. In the document, various urgent actions, including creating a Twitter storm and protesting outside Indian embassies, were listed as a method to show support to the over two-months-old protest on Delhi’s borders.
The toolkit has been cited by some critics as a “proof” of her conspiracy to fuel protests in India.
Meanwhile, Jacob approached the Bombay high court seeking transit anticipatory bail for four weeks so she can approach the concerned court in Delhi to apply for prearrest bail. The high court will hear her plea on Tuesday.
She said in her plea she is unaware if she is named as an accused or witness in the case. “However, the applicant (Jacob) fears that she may be arrested due to political vendetta and media trial,” her application said.
During the press conference, JCP Nath said that Disha Ravi was arrested in the presence of her mother and a station house officer from the local police station.
“All procedures were followed,” he said. However, three senior officers in Benagluru told HT, on the condition of anonymity, that the Delhi Police informed them about the arrest through officials of the Karnataka cyber-crime police only after the arrest was made.
According to the city police, no officer was present during the arrest.
Delhi police had on February 4 registered a first information report (FIR) under sections 124A (sedition), 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after Thunberg tweeted the toolkit.
Thunberg later deleted the original tweet.
The FIR was registered against the people who created and spread the toolkit.
Last week, Delhi Police sent a communication to Google seeking registration details and activity log of the account through which a “toolkit” related to the farmers’ protest was created and uploaded on the social media platforms.
Two e-mail IDs, one Instagram account, and one Uniform Resource Locator (URL) were mentioned in the toolkit and police had sought details from the respective platforms.
Farmers have been protesting at different border points of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
They claim that the laws would weaken their bargaining power, leave them at the mercy of powerful agribusinesses and potentially lead to the dismantling of government-run farm produce markets and the system of minimum support prices for agricultural commodities.