File image of advocate Nikita Jacob. Credit: LinkedIn

A Mumbai lawyer and a Beed engineer are accused of having joined climate activist Disha Ravi in preparing a toolkit detailing digital support for the farmers’ agitation.

Advocate and activist Nikita Jacob, who faces arrest for her alleged role in creating the “toolkit”, has denied sharing any information with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

She claimed that the document was simply an “informational pack” and was not intended to incite violence.

Jacob and Shantanu Muluk, against whom non-bailable warrants have been issued in Delhi in connection with the Greta Thunberg toolkit case, moved the Bombay High Court for transit anticipatory bail.

Her petition seeking an urgent hearing was mentioned before a single bench of Justice PD Naik. The court said it would hear the plea Tuesday.

Nikita Jacob

In her statement to the Delhi Police, Jacob has accepted that she played a role in mustering support for the farmers’ protests on the social media and shared details with activists globally, but emphasised that the document has “no mention of anything remotely violent”.

“The information contained in the toolkit does not in any manner incite riots or violence and is simply an information pack with information from various sources. No weapons, no violence, no mention of anything remotely violent in the toolkit or any of our communication,” the 30-year-old lawyer from Mumbai asserted.

A graduate from ILS Law College in Pune, Jacob worked with SK Legal Associates for nearly two years and handled civil and commercial litigation matters, primarily in the Bombay High Court. Her Linkedin account states that she also worked as a legal consultant at a private firm on contractual basis.

She is a volunteer of global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion (XR), Hindustan Times reported.

According to the report, Jacob told the Delhi Police that the toolkit was being prepared by XR India volunteers for presenting the whole picture with a simple breakdown for an international audience.

“The draft toolkit was shared on the XR WhatsApp group for comments and feedback before it was finalised on 22 January, and circulated within XR networks whilst it primarily focused on the farm issues, the right to express dissent and the larger democracy,” she told the police.

Shantanu Muluk

Activist Shantanu Muluk is one of the three accused named by the Delhi Police for collaborating with the pro-Khalistani group Poetic Justice Foundation in connection with the Google toolkit row.

He moved the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court, seeking transit anticipatory bail.

A native of Beed in Maharashtra, Muluk is an engineer by education, the police said, adding that he runs an NGO. His email account is the owner of the toolkit Google doc, the police said.

The Delhi Police alleged that a Canada-based woman, Puneet, had got the three in touch with the banned group. They later had a Zoom meeting on 11 January in which they discussed generating social media buzz for the farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day.

Muluk, Disha Ravi and Nikita Jacob had created the document and passed it on to others for editing, the police claimed.

Satej Jadhav, who represents Muluk, said a non-bailable warrant (NBW) has been issued against Muluk in the first information report (FIR) filed by the Delhi Police’s cyber cell.

The bench of Justice Vibha Kankanwadi has allowed the circulation of Muluk’s application and will take up the plea on Tuesday.

With inputs from PTI