Delhi court grants bail to Disha Ravi, the Bengaluru-based climate change activist slapped with sedition in the ‘toolkit’ case

Disha Ravi (centre) at the Patiala House court after the hearing, in New Delhi on February 23.

Disha Ravi, the Bengaluru-based climate change activist who was arrested by Delhi Police on February 13 from her home in Bengaluru, was granted bail today by a Delhi court.

A copy of the order granting bail to Disha is available on the website of Live Law . Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana of Patiala House Court Complex noted in the order granting bail: “Considering the scanty and sketchy evidence available on record, I do not find any palpable reasons to breach the general rule of ‘Bail’ against a 22 years old young lady, with absolutely blemish free criminal antecedents and having firm roots in the society, and send her to jail.”

The court granted her bail on the condition that she furnish a personal bond of Rs.1 lakh and two sureties of 1 lakh each. The order also specified that she “continue to cooperate with the ongoing investigations and shall join the investigation as and when summoned by the Investigating Officer.”

According to the first information report (FIR) filed by the Delhi Police on February 4, to which Disha Ravi’s name was added later, she was accused of editing a toolkit (this toolkit contained information on the farmers’ protests in Delhi) and being a “key conspirator in the document’s formulation and dissemination”. In the process of formulating this document, which was subsequently tweeted by international climate change activist Greta Thunberg, the Delhi Police accused Disha Ravi of having “collaborated with pro-Khalistani Poetic Justice Foundation to spread disaffection against the Indian State”. She was charged under draconian sections of the Indian Penal Code such as sedition, criminal conspiracy, intent to provoke rioting and promoting enmity between groups.

Reacting to the bail order, the noted advocate Prashant Bhushan tweeted: “Thank God for these judges who still understand the right to liberty & the rule that Bail can be denied to an accused only in exceptional circumstances. The arrest of Disha Ravi was totally malafide. The Delhi police must be taken to task & held accountable.”