Three-day judicial custody for Disha, bail may be heard today

Lawyer representing Disha told the court that there were irregularities in the case diary; police to seek activist’s custody again next week.

A Delhi court on Friday sent climate activist Disha Ravi to jail for three days at the request of Delhi Police which will seek her custody again next week to confront her with the co-accused.

The activist was arrested from Bengaluru on February 13 by Delhi Police for allegedly creating and sharing a protest toolkit backing the farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s new farm laws.(File Photo/AFP )

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) Akash Jain sent 22-year-old Ravi to three days’ judicial custody after she was produced in court at the end of five days of police custody.

The activist was arrested from Bengaluru on February 13 by Delhi Police for allegedly creating and sharing a protest toolkit backing the farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s new farm laws.

Delhi Police claimed on Monday that Ravi, along with Mumbai-based lawyer Nikita Jacob and Pune engineer Shantanu Muluk, created the toolkit and shared it with others “to tarnish India’s image”.

The two have already been granted transit anticipatory bail by the Bombay high court earlier this week.

On Friday, Ravi was brought to the Delhi court amid high security by the investigating agency which sought that she be sent to judicial custody for three days.

Additional public prosecutor (APP) Irfan Ahmed during the hearing told the court that the police had issued a notice to co-accused Shantanu Muluk for February 22 for joining the investigation and that’s when they would again question Ravi.

He claimed Ravi had been “evasive” during interrogation and shifted the blame onto the co-accused Nikita Jacob and Muluk. Ahmed also said the police want to question her again and bring her face-to-face with the co-accused in this case.

“She has shifted the blame on the co-accused Nikita Jacob and Muluk. All of them need to be confronted with each other.”

Ravi has also filed a bail application which is likely to be taken up on Saturday.

Countering the submissions by the APP, Siddharth Agarwal, representing Ravi, said that the case diary was not properly given and also not in accordance with the law. He pointed out that it was not even paginated.

A case diary is a record of daily investigations in a case.

The court, after hearing the arguments, sent Ravi to jail till February 22.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi high court directed the media and the police to exercise restraint while giving out details of the case, which dates back to earlier this month, when Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted out a toolkit detailing how to organise a campaign to support the ongoing farmers’ protest in India.

Delhi Police have sought to link the toolkit with the violence of January 26 in Delhi, and to pro-Khalistani organisations.