The Delhi Police on Monday said Non-bailable warrants (NBWs) have been issued against Mumbai- based advocate Nikita Jacob and her associate, Shantanu Muluk, who, along with arrested activist Disha Ravi, allegedly created the toolkit document being investigated by police and shared it.
The toolkit, according to the police, is a document that has a section titled ‘prior action plan’ about digital strikes to be conducted through hashtags on and before January 26, tweetstorms from January 23 onwards, physical action on January 26, and joining the farmers’ march into Delhi and back to the borders. Police said the unfolding of events, including the violence of January 26, was a copycat execution of the action plan.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime) of the Delhi Police Prem Nath said NBWs have been issued against advocate Ms. Jacob, a resident of Goregaon, and Mr. Muluk, a native of Maharashtra’s Beed district who resides in Pune and an engineer by profession.
Police claimed that evidence so far revealed that the toolkit was created by Ms. Jacob, Mr. Muluk and Ms. Ravi. The Special Cell is investigating.
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Mr. Nath said that after the case was registered to investigate the toolkit, it was found that it was created by alleged pro-Khalistani group ‘Poetic Justice Foundation’ and people associated with it. During the probe, screenshots of the toolkit document available on open source were investigated and subsequently, a search warrant was obtained on February 9 against Ms. Jacob, one of the alleged editors of the toolkit. “A team had gone to Mumbai and searches were conducted at her residence on February 11. Two laptops and one phone were found and several incriminating evidence was retrieved,” he said, adding that Ms Jacob was then asked to remain available the next day but she wasn’t found when the police went.
Police claimed that an initial interrogation of Ms. Jacob revealed that she, Mr. Muluk and Ms. Ravi made the toolkit and an email account created by Mr. Muluk is the owner of this document and all others are its editors. “A named Puneet, who is based in Canada connected these people to pro-Khalistan organization PJF’s founder Mo Dhaliwal and, through them, created this toolkit document titled ‘Global Farmer Strike and Global Day of Action 26 January’,” Mr. Nath stated.
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According to the police, on January 11, Ms. Jacob and Mr. Muluk attended a Zoom meeting organised by PJF, in which the modalities of the “global day of action” were worked out, and based on the course of action decided during this meeting, “Nikita, Disha, Shantanu and others collaborated towards the drafts of the toolkit”.
Police claimed that a team had also been sent to Beed but Mr. Muluk wasn’t found.
In Bengaluru, the police said, a team examined Ms. Ravi, associated with environmental movement called Fridays for Future. She had sent the toolkit to U.S.-based climate change activist Greta Thunberg on messaging application Telegram and “forced” her to act on it.
A Delhi Police source alleged that after Ms. Thunberg shared the toolkit, Ms. Ravi messaged her asking her to delete it because it had their names. “Disha also said that the sharing could harm them and might invite a UAPA case against them. She also told Greta that she would speak to her lawyers which she did and informed Greta as well,” the officer said.
Police said Ms. Ravi created a WhatsApp group on December 6 for coordination which she has now deleted.
Police claimed that the main aim of the toolkit was to “spread misinformation and create disaffection against the lawfully elected government”.
Mr Nath said the toolkit sought to amplify fake news through various tweets which they have created in the form of a tweet bank and “they also sought public to participate in the action on January 26”.
Police are also probing why the name of Pieter Friedrich was mentioned in the toolkit with organisations and persons on social media to follow.
