Toolkit case: Lawyer, green activist move HC for transit bail

An advocate and an environmentalactivist on Monday moved the Bombay High Court seeking transitanticipatory bail after they were named as suspects in a casefiled by the Delhi police with regard to the ''toolkit'' sharedby climate activist Greta Thunberg over the farmers' protest.

Advocate Nikita Jacob and environmental activistShantanu Muluk, both Maharashtra residents, filed separatepleas in the HC, which will hear them on Tuesday, after aDelhi court issued non-bailable warrants against them in thecase.

According to the Delhi police, the duo was allegedlyinvolved in preparing the document and was in direct touchwith ''pro-Khalistani elements''.

While Jacobs plea was filed in the principal HC seatin Mumbai, Muluk, a resident of Beed district in centralMaharashtra, submitted his application in the Aurangabad benchof the High Court.

Jacob's plea seeking urgent hearing was mentionedbefore the Bombay HC's single bench of Justice P D Naik onMonday. The HC said it would hear her plea on Tuesday.

Muluk's plea was mentioned before Justice VibhaKankanvadi of the Aurangabad bench and his application wouldalso be heard on Tuesday.

Both the pleas sought transit anticipatory bail for aperiod of four weeks so that the applicants (Jacob and Muluk)can approach the court concerned in Delhi to apply for pre-arrest bail.

Jacob and Muluk, in their pleas, have claimed they aretargets of political vendetta.

Jacob, in her plea, said she is unaware whether shehas been named as an accused or a witness in the case.

''However, the applicant (Jacob) fears that she may bearrested due to political vendetta and media trial,'' herapplication said.

Muluk, in his plea filed through advocate SatejJadhav, said he and others are not actual dissenters but haveonly come out in support of farmers agitating on Delhi bordersfor more than two months now against the Centre's new agri-marketing laws.

Vendetta has tricked down from politics to the houseof a common man making a mockery of the rights and principlesenshrined in the Constitution of India, the application said.

Jacob, in her plea, said the FIR registered in thecase was ''false and baseless'' and that she has alreadycooperated with the cyber cell of the Delhi police andrecorded her statement.

''Some entity named Legal Rights Observatory appears tohave filed a false and baseless complaint with the Delhipolice and seeks to pin the blame for violence on January 26,2021 (during tractor rally in Delhi) upon the applicant aswell,'' the plea said.

As per the application, on February 11, a team ofDelhi police came to Jacob's house in Goregaon area of Mumbaiwith a search warrant and seized documents and electronicgadgets.

''The applicant has no religious, political orfinancial motive or agenda for researching, discussing,editing and circulating communication packs/toolkits forraising awareness, let alone to incite violence, riots and/orcause any other physical harm,'' the application said.

It said Jacob was a practising advocate in the BombayHigh Court who volunteers for environmental causes.

''The applicant was deeply concerned about the recentfarm laws and villainising of farmers,'' the application said.

It said Jacob's personal information and details arebeing circulated on social media.

The application further said ''absolute lies'' are beingspread to incite hate and violence against Jacob by claimingshe has ties with political parties like the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP).

Muluk, in his application, said he and his colleaguesare innocent and at the most have been kept in the dark byone notorious stake holder, but that cannot take away thebonafide intentions of the applicant.

The Delhi police on Saturday arrested 21-year-oldenvironmental activist Disha Ravi from Bengaluru in connectionwith the case.

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

The Delhi case stems from the ''toolkit'' shared byThunberg, the Swedish teenage climate activist, to lend hersupport to the protesting farmers.

Thousands of farmers protesting the new agri lawsclashed with the police during their tractor parade on January26.

Earlier, the Delhi police had asked Google and somesocial media giants to provide information about e-mail ID,URLs and certain social media accounts related to creators ofthe ''toolkit'' shared by Thunberg and others on Twitter inconnection with the farmers' protest.