Delhi Police arrests 21-year-old climate activist from Bengaluru in Greta Thunberg ‘toolkit’ case

The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested a 21-year-old climate activist from Bengaluru for her alleged role in spreading 'toolkit' shared by teen climate activist Greta Thunberg and others on Twitter in connection with the farmers' protest.

Disha Ravi -- one of the founders of ‘Fridays For Future’ (FFF) campaign -- was picked up for questioning by Delhi Police in connection with the ‘toolkit’. She is a Bachelor of Business Administration graduate from Mount Carmel College is working as a culinary experience manager with Good Mylk company, the New Indian Express reported. She was working from home when she was picked up, the report quoting sources said.

The Cyber Cell unit of the Delhi Police had on February 4 lodged an FIR against "pro-Khalistan" creators of the "toolkit" for waging a "social, cultural and economic war against the Government of India". The case against unnamed persons have been registered on charges of criminal conspiracy, sedition and various other sections of the Indian Penal Code, police said.

The "toolkit" was shared by Greta Thunberg on Twitter as farmers protest started gaining global attention.

Later, the Delhi Police asked Google and some social media giants to provide information about email ids, URLs and certain social media accounts related to the creators of a "toolkit".

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy said a letter has been written to Google and other entities seeking information from them about people who created these accounts and uploaded these documents including the toolkit on social media.

Police said they have sought details about the email ids, domain URLs and certain social media accounts mentioned in the "toolkit". This document was uploaded through Google doc and shared later on Twitter.

He said the document in question was created, edited and pushed by certain people and it is important to identify them since there is an "element of conspiracy".

According to a senior Delhi Police officer, initial investigation suggested the document's link with a pro-Khalistan group, named "Poetic Justice Foundation".

He said considering the unfolding of events in the past few days, including the violence on January 26, it has revealed "copycat execution" of the action plan mentioned in the "toolkit" which was also aimed at waging "a social, cultural and economic war against the Government of India."

According to police, the toolkit has a particular section which says --- digital strike through hashtags on or before January 26, tweet storms on January 23 onwards, physical action on January 26 and watch-out or join farmers march into Delhi and back to borders.

The document "toolkit" was aimed to spread disaffection and ill-will against the government of India and creating disharmony among various social, religious and cultural groups, the police added.

(With PTI inputs)