The Delhi Court on Saturday reserved order in Disha Ravi’s bail plea for February 23. The 22-year-old climate activist, who was arrested on February 12 in connection with the dissemination of the Toolkit document, has been sent to three-day judicial custody after her police custody ended on February 18.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana heard the arguments of both the prosecution and defence for more than three hours.
What did the government argue?
Appearing for the state, ASG SV Raju told the court that the accused Disha Ravi has a connection with Pro-Khalistani outfits and if given bail, she might tamper with the evidence.
During the hearing, ASG SV Raju said, “The ‘toolkit’ may look innocuous but it is not. After some drafting, it was shared on the WhatsApp group for comments. It was finally shared with the Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF). There was no reason for this.”
“PJF was founded by Mo Dhaliwal in March 2020 and that it had shared content supporting Khalistan on its social media pages,” he added.
He argued, "the WhatsApp group chat shows that she was involved in the making and editing of the Toolkit. We had evidence, when we showed it to her, her lie was caught.”
ASG added, “There was no need to share this Toolkit with the Poetic Justice Foundation, it shows their intent was not #FarmersProtests but the intent was more sinister, the design was sinister.”
What did Ravi's lawyer argue?
Appearing for Disha Ravi, Advocate Siddharth Agarwal contended that Ravi's history shows that she has no links with the Khalistan movement.
“I am a girl 22 years of age, living in Bangalore, a graduate, whose history, geography, past, present or future, have nothing to do with Khalistan,” Agarwal told on behalf of Ravi.
He went on to contend “If highlighting the farmer protests on the global platform is sedition, then I am guilty. If thinking otherwise is a problem, we're lowering the bar of thinking that someone may have an opinion different from ours.”
"If telling people that there is something that has happened or could happen is sedition, we should shut down all internet everywhere,” he added.
Pointing out the sedition charge further, Agarwal argued, “their allegations in the FIR state that I have attacked chai and yoga. Is this the parameter for sedition?”
“Nobody arrested in connection with Red Fort violence has said that he was inspired by the toolkit. There is no evidence to show that the toolkit is responsible for violence during farmers' march,” he added.
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(With inputs from Live Law and PTI)
