The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted Mumbai-based activist Nikita Jacob transit bail for three weeks in the Greta Theunberg ‘tool-kit’ case relating to the farmers’ agitation and ruled that in the event of her arrest, she would be released on bail on a personal bond of Rs 25,000 and one surety of like amount.
While granting relief to Jacob, Justice P. D. Naik of the high court ruled: “This protection is granted for a period of three weeks from today to enable the applicant to approach the competent court for seeking appropriate relief,”
The high court was hearing Jacob’s plea against a non-bailable arrest warrant issued against her and another activist Shantanu Muluk, by the Tis Hazari Court in Delhi.
The high court had reserved its order on Jacob when the matter was heard here on Tuesday.
In a related development, the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court had on Tuesday granted a 10-day transit bail to Muluk, an engineer from Beed, in the same case.
In non-bailable warrants against them, the Delhi Police had on Monday charged Jacob and Muluk, who work for a UK-based NGO Extinction Rebellion, with creating the toolkit tweeted by Thunberg on the farmers’ protest.
Jacob has been booked under IPC Sections 124(A) for sedition, 153(A) for promoting enmity between different groups, and 120(B) for criminal conspiracy.
Another accused activist Disha Ravi – who was arrested by Delhi Police on February 13 for alleged involvement with an online ‘toolkit’ relating to Greta Theunberg-farmers’ agitation -- is currently in police custody for five days.
On their part, the Delhi Police have claimed that Disha, Jacob and Muluk had created the ‘toolkit’ relating to the farmers’ agitation which was shared with Thunberg.
Ms Jacob had told the high court on Tuesday that there was a Zoom meeting before Republic Day, which was attended by Poetic Justice Foundation founder MO Dhaliwal, and other fellow activists, including Disha.
Jacob’s lawyer Mihir Desai had told the court that the "toolkit" was prepared by Extinction Rebellion (XR) India volunteers for presenting the whole picture with a simple breakdown for an international audience. Desai had also argued that Jacob was a young woman, practising law since the past 6 to 7 years and was a responsible environmental activist who was moved by the plight of the agitating farmers.