The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted three weeks' transit anticipatory bail to Mumbai-based activist lawyer Nikita Jacob in connection with the farmers' protest 'toolkit' case. The relief by Justice PD Naik came in her plea against a non-bailable arrest warrant issued against her and another activist Shantanu Muluk, by Delhi's Tis Hazari Court.
The high court had reserved its order on Jacob when the matter was heard here on Tuesday after it was mentioned for an urgent hearing on Monday by her lawyers. Simultaneously, the Bombay HC (Aurangabad Bench) on Tuesday granted a 10 days transit bail to Muluk, an engineer from Beed, in the same case.
Jacob and Muluk are among those named in the case involving a 'toolkit' shared with global climate campaigner Greta Thunberg in support of the farmers protests in Delhi. Non-bailable warrants had been issued against them. Another climate activist, 22-year-old Disha Ravi was arrested by Delhi Police and is currently in police custody for five days.
According to the Delhi police, the two along with arrested accused Disha Ravi, an activist from Bengaluru, were allegedly involved in preparing the document and were in direct touch with "pro-Khalistani elements". The Delhi police on Monday alleged that Ravi along with Jacob and Shantanu created the toolkit and shared it with others to tarnish India's image.
The "toolkit" was shared by Greta Thunberg to lend her support to the protesting farmers. It is to be noted that ‘toolkits’ are documents that contain basic info on any issue, tweet suggestions, hashtags and whom to tag on social media. Toolkits are a regular inventory while organising protests online. Various forms of toolkits are also used by social media teams of political parties as well when they need to plan a particular social media campaign.
Earlier, Jacob and Muluk had filed for pre-arrest bail in Mumbai. While Jacob’s plea was filed in the principal HC seat in Mumbai, Muluk submitted his application in the Aurangabad bench of the High Court.
Jacob's lawyer Mihir Desai argued that she is a young woman, practicing law since the past six-seven years and a responsible environmental activist who was moved by the plight of the agitating farmers.