Toolkit Case: Relief From Arrest For Nikita Jacob And Shantanu Muluk Till 15 March

Friyana Munshi

New Delhi, March 9, 2021: Delhi’s Patiala House Court granted interim relief from arrest till 15 March for accused engineer Shantanu Muluk and lawyer Nikita Jacob for sharing a ‘toolkit’ related to the farmer movement on social media.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana granted relief to both the accused Mumbai lawyer Nikita Jacob and Pune engineer Shantanu Muluk. Earlier, the lawyers of both the accused said that they need time to look into the statement filed by the Delhi Police for further arguments in the case. The court heard the request and directed the police not to take any punitive action against the two accused till 15 March. On the same day, the court will hear the case further.

According to the information received, the court gave the Delhi Police a week’s time to respond to Nikita Jacob’s anticipatory bail plea on March 2. Delhi Police has registered a case against Advocate Nikita Jacob under sedition and other charges. Jacob had approached the Delhi court for anticipatory bail.

Apart from Nikita Jacob in the ‘Toolkit’ case, Bengaluru’s environmental activist Disha Ravi is also an accused. Jacob received transit anticipatory bail from the Bombay High Court on February 17 for three weeks to allow the accused to approach the respective court in Delhi, where the case is filed.

Police had alleged that this’ toolkit ‘was prepared as part of a conspiracy to spread violence and unrest in India in the name of farmers’ agitation against agricultural laws. Earlier on 25 February, the sessions court in Delhi relieved the other accused Shantanu Muluk from arrest till 9 March.

On February 25, the court granted relief to Muluk from arrest till March 9. On 16 February, the Aurangabad bench of Maharashtra granted Muluk a 10-day transit advance bail. He then approached Delhi court on 23 February. Shantanu Muluk, Disha Ravi, and Nikita Jacob have been booked for sedition and other charges.

At the same time, the court had granted bail to activist Disha Ravi, a resident of Bengaluru, on February 23, saying that the evidence presented by the police was ‘incomplete’. The court had said that the evidence presented was not sufficient to detain the 22-year-old girl, who has no criminal background. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana had said that in any democratic country, citizens are the guardians of the conscience of the government. They cannot be sent to jail simply because they disagree with the government’s policies.