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The police have said Disha Ravi was being evasive.
New Delhi:
The online “toolkit”, cited by the Delhi police to accuse three persons of sedition over the past few days, was merely a “resource document”, environment activist Disha Ravi today told a Delhi court while moving her bail plea. The Delhi police contradicted that claim, opposing the 22-year-old’s petition, saying it was a gateway to various websites that defame India and its army. Ms Ravi is the only person arrested so far in the case.
She was taken into custody on February 13 from Bengaluru in connection the toolkit case, an offshoot of the police’s probe in the January 26 violence that broke out amid the farmers’ protest rally on tractors in the national capital. Authorities believe foreign separatist forces were involved in the incidents of that day. Apart from Ms Ravi, they have zeroed-in on two others, Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk, in this connection.
The three of them are accused of creating the toolkit to organise an international campaign against India, which was inadvertently revealed by Swedish eco-warrior Greta Thunberg who tweeted it before deleting it.
Hearing Ms Ravi’s case plea today, the court said, “What is a toolkit?” The judge also asked what was the legal bar that stopped the Bengaluru woman from moving bail.
“What is the prosecution story? What are the allegations against Disha Ravi? What are the evidences against her?” the court posed three questions.
The Delhi police explained that the organisation named Poetic Justice Foundation, based in Canada, advocates the creation of a Khalistan state. The tweets of the “secessionist organisation” are evident of their agenda, they said.
“They wanted to take advantage of farmers protest. They wanted an Indian face. They got in touch with few people, including Disha Ravi. A mechanism was devised. The entire purpose of making this toolkit was a conspiracy between the accused,” the police argued.
The probe into the toolkit comes as Delhi Police intensifies its investigation into last month’s Republic Day violence in the national capital after farmers took out a tractor rally against three agricultural laws.
Stressing on the possibility of “evidence tampering”, the police yesterday sought three days of judicial custody for Ms Ravi. She is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
The police plan to take her into custody again to confront her with the other accused in the case.
The police are likely to oppose her bail plea stating they got her in custody only for five days and the investigation was still on. They had told the court yesterday that Ms Ravi was being evasive and not cooperating with the investigation.
Ms Ravi’s arrest had sparked a huge outrage with many calling it “atrocious”.
“I did not make the toolkit. We wanted to support the farmers. I edited two lines on February 3,” Disha Ravi had told the court last Sunday.
Yesterday, the Delhi High Court cautioned media against sensationalism in the case after Ms Ravi petitioned the court, seeking action against three news channels and direction to the police to not leak investigation material.
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