Greta Thunberg toolkit case: Climate activist Disha Ravi sent to 5-day police custody

A Delhi court on Sunday remanded 21-year-old 'climate activist' Disha Ravi to five days police custody following her arrest in connection with allegedly being involved in sharing a 'toolkit' on social media related to the farmers' protest.

Duty Metropolitan Magistrate Dev Saroha of Patiala House Courts Complex allowed Delhi Police to quiz Disha Ravi for five days.

Ravi is a climate activist residing in Bengaluru and was allegedly involved in editing and disseminating the toolkit on social media.

The activist was presented before a Delhi Court by Delhi Police. The police sought seven days of custody on the ground that the custody is required to probe an alleged larger conspiracy against the Government of India and to ascertain the alleged role relating to Khalistan movement.

A 'toolkit' is a document created to explain any issue. It also provides information on what one needs to do to address the issue. This might include information about petitions, details about protests and mass movements.

The police told the Court that the activist has allegedly edited the toolkit on February 3 and many other people are involved in the matter. The police informed the Court that they have recovered the mobile phone of the activist.

During the hearing, Ravi broke down inside the courtroom and told the judge that she had edited only two lines and that she wanted to support the farmers' protest.

Ravi, who is a graduate in Bachelor of Business Administration from a private college in Bengaluru, is also one of the founding members of a group named 'Fridays For Future India'.

Earlier, the Delhi Police had asked Google and some social media giants to provide information about email id, URLs and certain social media accounts related to the creators of the "toolkit" shared by Thunberg and others on Twitter in connection with the farmers' protest.

Two e-mail IDs, one Instagram account, and one Uniform Resource Locator (URL) were mentioned in the toolkit and police have asked for details from the respective platforms.

The police had registered an FIR against unidentified persons in connection with the creators of the toolkit.

Farmers have been protesting at different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers` Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

(With agency inputs)