News Analysis India

Tag: Nikita Jacob

  • Toolkit case: Court extends protection from arrest to Nikita Jacob, Shantanu Muluk till March 15

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A court here on Tuesday extended protection from arrest till March 15 to Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk, both accused along with young climate change activist Disha Ravi in a case of sharing a “toolkit” on social media related to the farmers’ protest.

    Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana granted the relief after the counsel appearing from both the accused persons said they needed time to go through the reply filed by the Delhi Police before advancing arguments in the matter.

    The judge heard the submission and directed the police not to take any coercive action against both the accused till March 15, when court will further hear the matter. Jacob, Muluk and Ravi were booked for sedition and other charges.

  • Toolkit case: Police grills Nikita and Shantanu, gets one-day custody of Disha Ravi

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday sent student-activist Disha Ravi, arrested in connection with the farmer protest ‘toolkit’ probe, to one-day police custody.

    The 21-year-old was produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma on expiry of her three-day judicial custody.

    Delhi Police sought five-day remand saying Disha had tried to shift blame on the co-accused — Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk — during questioning and needed to be confronted with them.

    The court granted one day for custodial interrogation.

    Opposing the police plea, Disha’s lawyer Siddharth Agarwal said, “The police have a right to interrogate the accused even in the jail. Why do you require her custody?” He pointed out that an order on her bail plea is expected on Tuesday. Besides, he contended, why should Disha be in police custody while the two co-accused are out on bail. 

    Police said Jacob and Muluk may be arrested in future. The two had earlier secured pre-arrest transit bail from Bombay High Court. They  joined the probe and was questioned at Delhi Police’s Cyber Cell office on Monday. 

    They are being quizzed about their role in the case and their connection with the pro-Khalistani outfit Poetic Justice Foundation, Pieter Frederich and ISI agent BS Bhinder, said a source.

    An officer said the IP address and locations provided by Google on request show the toolkit was uploaded from Karnataka and Maharashtra.

  • Toolkit row: Delhi cops seized hard disk from house without search warrant, says Shantanu Muluk’s father

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Two persons claiming to be Delhi Police personnel seized a computer hard disk and other items from the house of green activist Shantanu Muluk, a suspect in the “toolkit” case, without a search warrant on February 12, in Beed in Maharashtra, his father Shivlal Muluk has told local police.

    Beed superintendent of police Raja Ramaswami said on Wednesday that Shivlal Muluk made a representation to the police on Tuesday.

    “We got representation yesterday. We’ll enquire & accordingly take needful action (sic),” reads the message texted to PTI by Ramaswami.

    On Tuesday, the Bombay High Court granted transit anticipatory bail to Shantanu Muluk for 10 days.

    EDITORIAL | Disha Ravi not Mata Hari: Crackdown against toolkit creators over the top

    Shivlal Muluk, 54, made the representation as a “responsible citizen” to Beed Police and urged the SP to take appropriate action regarding the ‘search’ conducted at his house, an official said.

    The letter stated that two persons visited the residence of the Muluks in Chanakyapuri area in Beed on February 12 around 5.30 am and introduced themselves as officials of the Delhi Police by showing their identity cards, the official said.

    The duo told the Muluk family that Delhi Police wanted to know about Shantanu, saying he had committed treason and he had been in contact with pro-Khalistan people, the official said quoting the letter.

    The duo then searched all rooms in the house and took away a hard disk, an environment-related poster, a book, and a mobile phone cover from Shantanu Muluk’s room, it stated.

    According to Shivlal Muluk, the police officials did not show any search warrant and also didn’t obtain any permission from the family before taking away these items, the letter said.

    The police officials also didn’t prepare any ‘panchnama’ of the seized material, it stated.

    A Panchnama is a record of witness testimony, usually prepared by the police, during the investigation of a crime or after a death.

    The police officials also told the Muluk family that the seized material will be returned to them later, as per the representation.

    ALSO READ | Our daughter is innocent, we’re a humble family: Disha Ravi’s mother

    Shivlal Muluk also claimed that the visiting police team had asked him to come to the government guest house in Beed for questioning.

    The letter stated that Shivlal Muluk as a “responsible citizen” was informing about the visit of the Delhi Police to Beed SP as no local government official accompanied them.

    When contacted on phone, Shivlal Muluk said on Wednesday that he was not in a condition to speak.

    According to the Delhi police, Shantanu Muluk and Mumbai-based lawyer Nikita Jacob along with arrested accused Disha Ravi, an activist from Bengaluru, were allegedly involved in preparing the document and were in direct touch with “pro-Khalistani elements”.

    On Wednesday, the Bombay HC also granted transit anticipatory bail to Jacob.

    The Delhi police on Monday alleged that Ravi along with Jacob and Shantanu had created the toolkit and shared it with others to tarnish India’s image.

    Greta Thunberg, a celebrated climate activist, had shared the “toolkit” to lend support to the farmers’ agitation near Delhi borders against the Union government’s new agri laws.

  • Toolkit case: Suspect Nikita Jacob gets transit pre-arrest bail

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted transit anticipatory bail to advocate Nikita Jacob, a suspect in a case registered by Delhi police in connection with the “toolkit” shared by climate activist Greta Thunberg over the ongoing farmers’ protest.

    Justice P D Naik gave Jacob three weeks’ time to approach the court concerned in Delhi for relief.

    On Tuesday, another suspect in the case, Shantanu Muluk, an engineer based in Maharashtra’s Beed district, was also granted transit anticipatory bail for 10 days by the HC’s Aurangabad bench.

    Jacob and Muluk, who claim to be environmental activists, had approached the HC after a Delhi court issued non-bailable warrants against them.

    According to the Delhi police, the two along with arrested accused Disha Ravi, an activist from Bengaluru, were allegedly involved in preparing the document and were in direct touch with “pro-Khalistani elements”.

    The Delhi police on Monday alleged that Ravi along with Jacob and Shantanu created the toolkit and shared it with others to tarnish India’s image.

  • Delhi Police writes to Zoom, seeks details of those who attended toolkit meeting ahead of R-Day

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has written to video conferencing platform Zoom seeking details of those who participated in the January 11 meeting organised allegedly by a pro-Khalistani group to prepare a protest “toolkit” backing the farmers’ agitation, officials said on Tuesday.

    Police alleged that Mumbai lawyer Nikita Jacob and Pune engineer Shantanu were among the around 70 people who had attended the meeting through Zoom app, days before the Republic Day violence in the national capital that left over 500 police personnel injured and one protester dead.

    “The Delhi Police has written to video conferencing app Zoom seeking details of participants who attended the meeting on January 11,” the official said.

    On Monday, Joint Commissioner of Police (cyber) Prem Nath had alleged that the e-mail account created by Shantanu is the owner of this Google document.

    “Pro-Khalistani group Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF) founder Mo Dhaliwal had contacted them (Jacob and Shantanu) through a Canada-based woman named Punit,” Nath had said.

    “Nikita and Shantanu had on January 11 attended a Zoom meeting organized by PFJ in which modalities were decided to create the ‘toolkit’ titled ‘Global Farmer Strike’ and ‘Global Day of Action, 26 January’,” Nath said.

  • Toolkit case: After arresting Disha Ravi, Delhi Police issue non-bailable warrants against two more activists

    Express News Service
    BENGALURU/NEW DELHI: After arresting climate activist Disha Ravi (21) from Bengaluru, the Delhi Police on Monday obtained non-bailable arrest warrants against Bombay High Court lawyer Nikita Jacob and activist Shantanu. 

    According to sources, the Delhi police allege that Jacob was involved in creating the controversial ‘toolkit’ that was reportedly tweeted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg in support of the ongoing farmers’ protest against the three farm laws.

    The police have charged Disha with being the ‘key conspirator’ and editing the “toolkit Google doc” in the document’s formulation and dissemination. The police have alleged that the toolkit in question was created by a “pro-Khalistani” organisation, Poetic Justice Foundation to spread disaffection against the Indian State”, police alleged.

    #Toolkit case. After #DishaRavi Warrant for arrest of lawyer activist #nikitajacob #Shantanu. #DelhiPolice #GretaThunberg @XpressBengaluru @gsvasu_TNIE @santwana99
    — bala chauhan (@balachauhan) February 15, 2021

    Meanwhile, some student organisations and activist groups in Bengaluru are planning to hold protests on Monday evening against the unlawful arrest of Disha at the Mysore Bank circle in the city.

    ALSO READ: Release Disha Ravi, demand environmental activists in India

    Speaking to The New Indian Express, advocate Vinay K Srinivasa said, “There are several irregularities in the manner in which the Delhi police have arrested Disha. Why was Bengaluru police not informed? Why was she not produced before a local court for her transit remand or not allowed to speak to her lawyer in Bengaluru. Why was her family not informed about her arrest.”

    How did Delhi Police land in Bengaluru

    Ravi was picked up from her Bengaluru residence by the special cybercrime cell of the Delhi Police, who had filed an FIR on February 4 against unknown persons for sharing a toolkit on farmer protests in the national capital on social media sites, aiming to spread ‘disaffection against the Government of India’.

    ALSO READ: Environment advocates condemn arrest of Disha Ravi, demand swift release

    Last week, the Delhi Police had approached Google, seeking registration details and activity logs of accounts through which the ‘toolkit’ was created and uploaded on social media platforms.

    What is the ‘toolkit’

    The toolkit mentions two e-mail IDs, one Instagram account and one Uniform Resource Locator (URL), whose details the police have sought from respective platforms. “The action plan delineated in this toolkit and the unfolding of events including the violence of January 26 reveal a copycat execution of the action plan. It is definitely the intention of the creators of this toolkit to create disharmony among various social, religious and cultural groups and create disaffection and encourage ill-will against the government.

    The ‘toolkit’ exposes the conspiracy by an organised overseas network to instigate the farmer protests,” Special Commissioner (Crime Branch), Delhi Police, Praveer Ranjan said. Several social media accounts and websites are under scanner, the police said. Farmers have been protesting at Delhi-Haryana and Delhi-Uttar Pradesh borders since November 26 against the three contentious farm laws.

    The new warrants have come at a time when the arrest of Bengaluru-based Disha Ravi on conspiracy and sedition charges, have sparked outrage. Ravi was produced in a Delhi court on Sunday in the absence of her lawyers and sent to five-day police custody. 

  • Toolkit document case: Nikita Jacob moves Bombay HC for transit bail

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Advocate Nikita Jacob, accused in a case registered by Delhi police in connection with the “toolkit” shared by climate activist Greta Thunberg over farmers’ protest, approached the Bombay High Court on Monday seeking transit anticipatory bail.

    A Delhi court has issued a non-bailable warrant against Jacob and another accused in the case.

    Jacob’s plea seeking urgent hearing was mentioned before the Bombay High Court’s single bench of Justice P D Naik on Monday.

    The high court said it would hear the plea on Tuesday.

    ALSO READ | Disha Ravi, Bengaluru’s Greta, sent to 5-day Delhi police custody

    Jacob in her plea sought transit anticipatory bail for a period of four weeks so that she can approach the court concerned in Delhi to apply for a pre-arrest bail.

    The Delhi police on Saturday arrested 21-year-old environmental activist Disha Ravi from Bengaluru in connection with the case.

    She was on Sunday produced before a Delhi court which remanded her in police custody for five days.

    Greta Thunberg, a teen climate activist, had shared the “toolkit” to lend her support to the farmers’ agitation near Delhi borders against the Centre’s three agri laws.

    In the document, various urgent actions, including creating a Twitter storm and protesting outside Indian embassies, were listed which were needed to be taken to support the farmers’ protest.

    The toolkit has been cited by some critics as a “proof” of her conspiracy to fuel protests in India.