Climate activist Disha Ravi, charged with sedition after being arrested 13 February in connection with a “toolkit” relating to the Republic Day violence in the national capital, walked out of Delhi’s Tihar Jail late Tuesday night, hours after she was granted bail.
Earlier in the day Additional Sessions Court Judge Dharmendra Rana said that there was “scanty” and “sketchy” evidence against Disha. While granting bail to Disha to two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each, the court observed that there is no palpable reason to not grant bail to Disha who has no criminal background. “Considering the scanty and sketchy investigation, I do not find any palpable reason to breach the rule of bail for a 22-year-old girl who has absolutely no criminal antecedents,” Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana said in his bail order.
The court, while granting bail to Disha, observed that “creation of a WhatsApp group or being editor of an innocuous toolkit is not an offence”.
“Since the link with the said toolkit or Peotic Justice Foundation (PJF) has not been found to be objectionable, mere deletion of the WhatsApp chat to destroy the evidence linking her with the toolkit and PJF also becomes meaningless,” said the Additional Session Judge.
“Except for a bare assertion, no evidence has been brought to my notice to support the contention that any violence took place at any of the Indian Embassies pursuant to the sinister designs of the applicant accused and her coconspirators,” the court said in its order.
Advocate Abhinav Sekhri, the lawyer for Disha, sought a reduction of the bail amount and sureties, but the court refused to modify the order.
Delhi Police had produced her before the Magistrate Court seeking extended custody of four days for Disha citing that her presence is necessary to confront her with co-accused in the matter. On Monday, the same court had granted one-day police remand to the 22-year-old climate, who was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on 13 February from Bengaluru in connection with the ‘toolkit’ case as part of the police probe into violence on January 26 in the national capital during the tractor march called by farmers protesting against three new farm laws.
Earlier, Public Prosecutor Advocate Vikas representing Delhi Police had informed the court that, there are two other accused persons in this case—Nikita and Shantanu—who have joined the investigation. Recently, both of them have been granted protection from arrest by the Bombay High Court. She was one of the editors of the ‘Toolkit’ Google document.
Advocate Sidharth Aggarwal, who appeared for Disha, had opposed the Delhi Police remand application. “Public prosecutor is arguing as if he is seeking police custody for the first time. They earlier asked for seven days but got five days. They did not inform the court about that. They did not inform the court that I have moved a bail application which was heard for three hours by the Sessions Court,” Aggarwal had said.
“Shantanu and Nikita are not in custody then why is my client’s custody being sought. She can be confronted with them even when she is in judicial custody,” he had added.
On 3 February, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg had shared this “toolkit” in a tweet which she later deleted. Greta had also extended support to the protest by farmers’ unions on the borders of Delhi against the new farm laws.
