Delhi police on Saturday arrested Bengaluru-based climate activist Disha Ravi in connection with the Greta Thunberg ‘toolkit’ case.
Thunberg, a Swedish radical activist fighting for extreme action to be taken to halt climate change on Earth, had shared a ‘toolkit’ on social media platform Twitter with instructions on how to build international pressure on the Indian government to force it to repeal the farm laws.
Disha Ravi is one of the founders of the ‘Fridays For Future’ campaign in India. She was arrested from her house in the Soladevanahalli police station limits in Bengaluru by a Special Cell of the Delhi Police. A Delhi Magistrate on Sunday remanded the accused to five days of police custody.
According to the police, Disha Ravi played an important role in spreading the “toolkit” that was shared to Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg to show support for the farmers agitating near the national capital. The police said that her custody was necessary to probe an alleged larger conspiracy against the government of India and to ascertain her involvement, if any, in the Khalistan movement.
Inside the courtroom, Disha Ravi broke down during the hearing and admitted to the judge that she had edited only two lines as she wanted to support the farmers’ protest. Duty Magistrate Dev Saroha allowed the Delhi Police to quiz Ravi for five days.
While seeking her custody, the police told the court that the activist had allegedly edited the “toolkit” on February 3 and many other people are involved in the matter. According to the police, Disha Ravi is an Editor of the Toolkit Google Document and a key conspirator in document’s formulation and dissemination. She started a WhatsApp group and collaborated to make the Toolkit document. She worked closely with others to draft the Document. In this process, they all collaborated with the Poetic Justice Foundation, a pro-Khalistani organisation based in Canada, to spread disaffection against the Indian State. Disha Ravi was the one who shared the Toolkit Doc with Greta Thunberg. Later, the police allege, she also asked Greta to remove the main document after its incriminating details were accidentally released into the public domain. The police also informed the court that they have recovered the mobile phone of the activist.
Earlier, the Delhi Police had asked Google and some social media giants to provide information about email ID, URLs and certain social media accounts related to the creators of the “toolkit” shared by Thunberg and others on Twitter in connection with the farmers’ protest. The Cyber Cell had lodged an FIR against “pro-Khalistan” creators of the “toolkit” for waging a “social, cultural and economic war against the government of India”. The case against unnamed persons was registered on charges of criminal conspiracy, sedition and various other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The “toolkit” was aimed at spreading disaffection and ill-will against the government of India and creating disharmony among various social, religious and cultural groups, the police had claimed.
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