Advocate Nikita Jacob on Monday moved the Bombay High Court, seeking a transit anticipatory bail after the Delhi Police issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against her in connection with the ‘toolkit’ created by 18-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
This comes hours after 22-year-old activist Disha Ravi from Bengaluru was sent to police custody for her alleged involvement with the toolkit.
Ms. Jacob’s associate Shantanu Muluk also moved the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court seeking a transit anticipatory bail in the same matter. It will be heard on Tuesday before justice VV Kankanwadi. He is being represented by advocate Satej Jadhav
Ms. Jacob’s plea, filed by advocate Sanjukta Dey, will be heard by justice PD Naik on Tuesday. It mentions that she has not received a copy of the complaint or the FIR if filed by any authority and when she tried to procure the same, it was denied to her. On February 11, the Cyber Cell Unit personnel, accompanied by constables from the Vanrai Police Station came to Ms. Jacob’s house with a search warrant and seized personal documents and electronic gadgets, which had confidential information protected by attorney-client privilege.
Her plea stated, “Some trollers and bots are circulating her personal information like email ids, phone numbers and pictures on social media. An entity named, ‘Legal Rights Observatory’ appears to have filed a false and baseless complaint with the Delhi Police and seeks to pin the blame for violence on January 26, 2021 upon her. Times Now, ABP news channels reached her house based on this information.”
She had volunteered in an environmental movement by the name of Extinction Rebellion that helped to create awareness about various environmental crisis and concerns, and helped create a positive change to the current system and structure. She was deeply concerned about the recent farm laws and consequent villianising of farmers. She had been researching and circulating information for raising awareness to encourage peaceful participation and express solidarity with various vulnerable communities, it said.
She seeks a transit anticipatory bail for four weeks and be served upon by the police station concerned 72 hours in advance prior to her arrest.
Mr. Muluk’s plea said, “Firstly the house of one of his colleagues namely Nikita was raided for entire day in Mumbai on February 11, secondly on February 13, another member of XR (Extinction Rebellion, is a global community of climate change activists) India namely Disha was arrested from Bangalore and taken to Delhi without following any due procedure. Thirdly and most importantly the Delhi police team has stationed itself in Beed which is the native town of the present applicant for the past three days. That the team has seized various material without following due procedure and were not even assisted and accompanied by the local police. That they had been troubling the old parents of the applicant and putting undue pressure on them by using strong arm tactics.”
