A Delhi Court while disposing of the anticipatory bail applications moved by Nikita Jacob, Shantanu Muluk and Shubham Kar Chaudhari said that the investigating agency/Delhi police would give seven days prior notice to the accused, in case they intend to arrest them in the 'Toolkit' document case related to the farmers' protest.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana observed that when arrest becomes unavoidable, advance notice of seven working days shall be given to them to avail remedies.
During the course of the hearing, Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastav appearing for the Delhi Police submitted, "Criticism of the government is a different thing, shouting slogans once or twice is not enough. But, they are attracting people of like bent through the cheat sheet. This is not healthy criticism. Once you say India or State, you can't criticise."
APP Atul Srivastava also submitted that the kind of hashtags Shantanu used created many doubts.
"Money was coming from Jeddah. It's not from England or something. The investigation is at the initial stage," argued APP Srivastava.
DCP Cyber Cell said, "All these entities are based abroad. Signal, Telegram and Proton Mail have the USP to show reluctance in sharing information with law enforcement agencies. All the data is end to end encrypted. It takes a lot of effort to get info from them. Platforms such as Signal are known for not being helpful to law enforcement agencies."
"Shantanu deleted the entire logs of his device since July, specific photographs of his Delhi visit has been deleted. Location data has also been deleted. These are not the data that was in the public domain. They were under password protection. Delhi Police says Shantanu was using an Apple device, he was also carrying an IPad even during the Delhi visit. The IPad is completely clean," he further said.
Advocate Soutik Banerjee appearing for climate activist Shubham Kar Chaudhari submitted, "I'm a liaison in South Asia. I've no direct or indirect role in determining what work a person would do. I'm not even required to be informed of what a chapter would do. I even didn't open or forward that toolkit."
"I have got anticipatory bail and today, I have appeared before them for a total of 16 days, approx 140 hours, where I have been confronted with Disha Ravi and others, our statements have been crosschecked, confrontation and all the documents have been seized," submitted Rebecca John who appeared for the accused Nikita Jacob in the matter.
Shantanu, lawyer of Vrinda Grover said, "I have already joined the investigation. I've been confronted with Disha Ravi and Nikita Jacob. Whatever I've said has been corroborated. There is no contradiction. My social media are crystal clear. The IP address is with them."
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana had earlier granted regular bail to climate activist Disha Ravi in the case. The 21-year-old activist was arrested from Bengaluru in connection with the formulation and dissemination of the 'toolkit' document, in the ongoing farmers' protest. She was one of the editors of the 'toolkit' document.
On February 3, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg had shared this 'toolkit' in a tweet, which she later deleted. Greta had also extended support to the ongoing protest by farmer unions on the borders of Delhi against the three new farm laws.
As per the Delhi Police, the toolkit shared by the Swedish climate activist played a major role in turning the '26 January 2021 tractor parade' violent, leaving a few hundred police personnel injured.
Police said that the toolkit was not created by a handful of activists in India but in collaboration with pro-Khalist orgsations.
Special Cell of Delhi Police lodged an FIR for creating and spreading the toolkit and to probe 'international conspiracy' to defame India.
( With inputs from ANI )
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