bail pleas of Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk will be heard on Tuesday by the Bombay High Court.
Activists Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk have moved the Bombay High Court for transit anticipatory bail after non-bailable warrants were issued against them by Delhi Police in connection with the climate campaigner Greta Thunberg's 'toolkit' case. Ms Jacob who is a lawyer has sought protection from arrest for four weeks, interim protection from any coercive action and a direction to the Delhi Police to share with her a copy of the FIR registered against her. The pleas will be heard on Tuesday.
Mr Muluk submitted the plea before the Aurangabad Bench of the High Court which said that the Delhi Police personnel have been stationed in the district for the past three days, have seized a lot of material without following due procedure and have been pressuring his elderly parents, reported The Indian Express. On the other hand, Ms Jacob in her plea to the High Court reportedly has said that the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police, accompanied by personnel from Vanrai police station in Goregaon (East) in Mumbai, had come to her home with a search warrant, and seized personal documents and electronic gadgets.
Reportedly, Ms Jacob has said that she learnt from social media sources that an entity by the name of Legal Rights Observatory appears to have filed a “false and baseless” complaint with Delhi Police, seeking to “pin the blame” for the violence in the capital on January 26 on her, among others. “…Untrustworthy and unethical news channels have been violating the applicant’s privacy and dissecting her personal information whilst also alleging absolute lies to incite hate and violence against applicant have ties with political parties like AAP,” says the application. Allegedly, the application also says that she "may be arrested due to political vendetta and media trial" and she is "unaware of the fact whether she is an accused person or a witness as her name is nowhere mentioned as far as she is aware of alleged FIR.” Mr Muluk who is the founder of XR India, said in his application that several online foundations had come together to support farmers' agitation including XR India. He added that XR India had created a platform to showcase information regarding the protests held by the farmers, including ways of peaceful protest.
Both activists along with the third, Disha Ravi who has been arrested by the Delhi Police, have been accused of creating the 'toolkit' document that was shared by Ms Thunberg on her Twitter account which was later deleted citing outdated.
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