Farmers’ Stir: 21-Year-Old Climate Activist Held In Bengaluru For Sharing Greta Thunberg’s Toolkit

A 21-year-old climate activist from Bengaluru has been arrested by the Delhi police for allegedly sharing a toolkit on the farmers’ protests.

Disha Ravi, was arrested by a Cyber Cell team of the Delhi Police from Bengaluru on Saturday, a senior police officer said.

Interestingly, this is the same toolkit for which Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was booked by the Delhi Police, earlier.

A toolkit, is a document created to explain any issue. It also provides information on what one needs to do to address the issue. This might include information about petitions, details about protests and mass movements and so on. Read more

Earlier, the Delhi Police had asked Google and some social media giants to provide information about email id, URLs and certain social media accounts related to the creators of the "toolkit" shared by Thunberg and others on Twitter in connection with the farmers' protest.

The Cyber Cell had 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 was registered on charges of criminal conspiracy, sedition and various other sections of the Indian Penal Code, the police said.

Addressing a press conference earlier, a senior Delhi Police officer said initial investigation linked the document with a pro-Khalistan group named "Poetic Justice Foundation".

According to the police, the "toolkit" has a particular section that mentions "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 "toolkit" was aimed at spreading disaffection and ill-will against the government of India and creating disharmony among various social, religious and cultural groups, the police had added.

(With PTI inputs)