Farmers Movement Archive

Toolkit case: Delhi court disposes of anticipatory bail pleas of Jacob, Muluk, Kar

The Delhi Police on Monday told a city court that it would give seven days’ prior notice to Mumbai lawyer Nikita Jacob, Pune engineer Shantanu Muluk and climate activist Shubham Kar Chaudhuri in case the police believe that their arrest is “unavoidable and imminent” in the toolkit case.Accepting the police submission, the three sought to withdraw their pleas seeking anticipatory bail and additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana, accordingly, disposed of the petitions. The trio, along with climate activist Disha Ravi, has been charged with sedition for creating and sharing a toolkit on social media related to the ongoing farmer’s protest against the three farm bills. While hearing arguments on the anticipatory bail pleas of Jacob, Muluk and Chaudhuri, Rana also noted the police submission that technical evidence is being gathered and information has been sought from intermediaries such as Signal and Telegram “whose USP is to be reluctant in sharing the information”.The police told the court that information also has to be sought from Zoom and other social media platforms while also claiming that of the 70-80 participants in the Zoom meeting of the Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF) held on January 11, allegedly attended by the accused, information has been obtained with respect to just two participants.Appearing for the police, additional public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava told the court that the investigation is at an initial stage and technical analysis has to be done.The court said the process would be time-consuming and custody (of accused) cannot be given to “instil fear”. The police said Muluk had deleted all images and whatever else was on there on his device and these can’t be retrieved.To this, Rana remarked, “What will you do in custodial interrogation then… You can’t do it to create fear. You have to show me how you would collect evidence during interrogation”.At this point, the defence counsels said they would withdraw the anticipatory bail pleas provided that the police agreed to give them advance notice of seven days in case they intend to arrest their clients.Noting their submissions, the court disposed of the pleas by the trio. It directed the police to give seven days’ notice if it gathers enough evidence to arrest the accused.The police had registered a case on February 4 for sedition, promoting hatred among groups and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted the ‘toolkit’ while expressing her support to the farmers’ protest.

Hindustan Times

16-03-2021

Delhi