Toolkit case: Delhi Police to probe role of UK-based woman

The Delhi Police will investigate the role of a woman based in the UK after its probe revealed that she, along with lawyer Nikita Jacob and engineer Shantanu Muluk, allegedly drafted the content of a ''twitter storm'' campaign in February in support of the ongoing farmer agitation, officials said on Wednesday.

The Delhi Police, probing the ''toolkit Google doc'' backing the farmers' agitation shared by climate activist Greta Thunberg, has arrested Bengaluru-based activist Disha Ravi while Mumbai lawyer Jacob and Pune engineer Shantanu Muluk have been granted pre-arrest bail by the court.

The police claimed that the woman, who is a member of the UK chapter of Extinction Rebellion (XR), along with Jacob and Muluk drafted the content between February 1 and 2 for the ''twitter storm'' campaign planned for February 4 and 5.

''The UK-based woman joined them. She made a package and added it to the document through a hyperlink. The toolkit was accidentally published when she was simultaneously editing it. She wrote that police are attacking protesters...many injured, many disappearing, and many individuals are already reported dead. This was created (with an aim) to mislead...,'' a senior police officer told reporters.

While examining their WhatsApp chats, another name Thilaka, also a member of XR, emerged. During the investigation, the police found that Thilaka also helped them in drafting the document and was in contact with Jacob and Disha Ravi, the officer claimed. However, the police did not divulge details on Thilaka and said it is part of the investigation. In the elaborating sequence of the event, the officer said Jacob, Muluk, and Disha Ravi connected with each other between 2019-2020. Puneet, a Canada-based woman and member of the Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF), connected with Jacob and Muluk on Instagram in the first week of December. On December 6, Jacob, Muluk, and Disha Ravi started a WhatsApp group. Muluk created an email id -- scrapfarmacts@gmail.com -- on December 11. PJF started its work on the January 26 protest on January 3. On January 9, PJF announced Global Day of Action on January 26, the police claimed. A-Zoom meeting was held on January 11 between all collaborators, including PJF founder Mo Dhaliwal, its co-founder Anita Lal along Jacob, Muluk, and others, the police claimed. PJF and other organizations added several hyperlinks to the toolkit document. One of these is genocidewatch.com, they claimed.

Jacob, Muluk, Disha Ravi, and others collaborated with others to finalize the toolkit content between January 11-12. On January 18, the AskIndiaWhy.com site was launched by PJF, the police said. On January 20, the draft toolkit Google doc was shared between Jacob, Muluk, and Disha Ravi for final vetting. Muluk was in the national capital from January 21 to 27 at a farmer protest site, the police said.

The police claimed that despite violent activity by farmers on Republic Day, the collaborators failed to achieve the ''desired'' impact due to police restrain.

On February 3 morning, Disha Ravi shared the toolkit with Greta Thunberg who accidentally shared it on Twitter by evening, the police said. By the same night, Disha Ravi took admin rights and removed her name from the toolkit, the police said.

Later, she shared the edited toolkit with Greta for sharing it. On February 4, Disha Ravi allegedly deleted her WhatsApp group and other data, they added.