Mumbai-based lawyer Nikita Jacob on Monday moved a court in Delhi seeking anticipatory bail in the case filed against the creators of a campaign document related to the farmers’ protest against the agricultural laws, Bar and Bench reported.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana will hear the petition on Tuesday.
Earlier, on February 17, the Bombay High Court had granted Jacob protection from arrest for three weeks in the case.
In her bail plea to the Bombay High Court, Jacob had submitted that she might be arrested in a false and frivolous case. She also said that personal information about her was being circulated on social media.
The Delhi Police had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Jacob and another activist Shantanu Muluk in the case. The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court had given a 10-day transit bail to Muluk. The non-bailable warrants against the two were issued after 22-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi was arrested in Bengaluru for allegedly editing and circulating the document that authorities say is anti-government.
The “toolkit” – a common term used by social activists for campaign material – was first tweeted by Thunberg on February 4.
The Delhi Police claimed that Muluk, Jacob and Ravi, had attended a Zoom call along with an organisation in Canada, the Poetic Justice Foundation, to chalk out the modalities related to the farmer protests against the new agricultural laws. The organisation is an advocacy group that often raises questions connected with human rights. However, the police claim it is promoting Khalistanism or Sikh separatism, a charge that the group denies.
On February 23, Ravi was released from custody after Rana granted her bail suggesting that she had not “subscribed to any secessionist idea”.
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