Activist Shantanu Muluk, one of the three main accused in the “toolkit” case, has received interim protection from arrest. Shantanu, against whom Delhi Police had issue a non-bailable arrest warrant, got a transit anticipatory bail from the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court.
Delhi Police has accused activists Shantanu Muluk, Nikita Jacob and Disha Ravi of “spreading disaffection against the Indian state” by creating the “toolkit” document—shared earlier this month on Twitter by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg in support of the ongoing farmers’ protest—in collaboration with the pro-Khalistani group Poetic Justice Foundation.
While Ravi, a 22-year-old climate activist, was arrested last Saturday, non-bailable warrants against Shantanu and lawyer-activist Nikita Jacob were issued on Monday.
Jacob had filed an anticipatory bail on Monday. The order over her bail request has been reserved till Wednesday. Sources said that Delhi Police has assured her lawyer that no coercive action will be taken against her until the court rules on her application.
Shanatnu Muluk’s cousin Sachin Muluk is the Zilla Pramukh of the Shiv Sena in Beed. While speaking to the media, Sachin Muluk said, “Shantanu is an environmentalist. He was backing the farmers’ agitation. If it is a crime to back a stir and fight for farmers, then it displays the dictatorial nature of the government. This is an attempt to stifle dissent. The farmers and people must thwart this attempt. It is important to think about how the future of the youth is being spoiled.”
Shantanu’s parents had been contacted on 12 February by Delhi Police. A team had reached Beed for a search of the premises and questioning. “They came at 5 am and inquired for about 2-3 hours. They were polite. We told them we do not know where he is,” Shivlal Muluk, his father said. “He was passionate about the farmers’ stir,” his mother Hema added.
Shantanu is a mechanical engineer-turned-environmental activist. He had done his MS from the US. The family said he had come to Beed to attend a wedding on 7 February, but since then they have had no contact with him. Shantanu used to do a job in Aurangabad earlier, but had recently shifted to Pune to do something on his own, his family said.
On Monday, Delhi Police alleged that Shantanu, Disha and Nikita had created the document and passed it on to others for editing.
A Canada-based woman, Puneet, had got the three in touch with the banned group, the police claimed. They later had a Zoom meeting on 11 January in which they discussed generating social media buzz for the farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police sources claim that Shantanu was present at the farmers’ protest site at Delhi’s Tikri border from 20-27 January. The information was revealed as the police were interrogating 21-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi, who was arrested from Bengaluru on Saturday.
According to police sources, apart from Shantanu, several other activists were present in Delhi on 26 January when the Red Fort violence broke out during the farmers’ tractor rally.
The Delhi Police has already written to software firm Zoom to find out which activists attended the virtual Zoom meeting on January 11 organised by the pro-Khalistan Poetic Justice Foundation in which the modalities of the ‘Global Day of Action’ were worked out and based on the course of action decided in that Zoom meeting, Nikita Jacob, Shantanu, Disha and others collaborated together to draft the ‘Toolkit’ document. The Delhi Police is also verifying if global climate activist Greta Thunberg attended the Zoom meeting. According to sources, nearly 60 to 70 people from India and abroad attended the meeting.
The police said that Mo Dhaliwal, the founder of Canada-based pro-Khalistan outfit Poetic Justice Foundation, had contacted Nikita through his woman colleague Puneet, a Canadian citizen, to create a storm on Twitter ahead of Republic Day. According to sources, the name of another woman Anita Lal has also cropped up in the conspiracy.
WITH ANI INPUTS