22-year-old Climate activist, Disha Ravi on Thursday has moved to the Delhi High Court seeking that police or state government should be stopped from leaking investigation materials related to the FIR or the probe that is accessible to the Delhi Police. She said that the police have pre-judged her guilt and a “biased and defamatory narrative” has been put out by the police about her role in the violation of the Union home ministry’s guidelines.
She in her petition said that police had taken custody of her mobile phone on February 13 and forced her to give her passwords to access her email addresses and social media accounts. “Thus, the only Respondent No. 1 had access to the contents of the Petitioner’s private conversations and any leaks of the same necessarily constitutes the commission of a cognizable offence and is a violation of Petitioner’s dignity, reputation, and fundamental right to privacy, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution,” the petition said.
She further asked the HC to take action against TV channels like News 18, India Today and Times Now so that they don’t publish contents/ extracts of any alleged private chats including those made over WhatsApp, adding that things are shown about her on the news channels and the media trials have severely aggrieved her.
The activist cited that media reports have leaked her WhatsApp contents presenting in a one-sided based narrative are defamatory.
On February 14, the public prosecutor alleged that Disha was part of a “larger conspiracy” against the Indian government, having connections with the Khalistani separatists. Disha made her submissions and denied being part of any conspiracy and that she doesn't know any such group.
Additionally, the Delhi Police was also uploading posts on Twitter about her being guilty of committing treason, “prejudge the guilt of the petitioner and disclose confidential and prejudicial information about the status of investigation stating that the petitioner was a key conspirator in the document (toolkit’s) formulation & dissemination. She started WhatsApp Group & collaborated to make the Toolkit doc. She worked closely with them to draft the Doc”, she stated.
She further said that the tweets establish an “opinionated and judgmental statement” and are encroaching on the right to privacy and a fair trial that a petitioner deserves.
The Delhi police have charged Disha with sedition for editing a toolkit or Google document relating to farmers' protest which was shared by international climate activist Greta Thunberg.
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Toolkits are documents that contain basic information on campaigns including tweet suggestions, hashtags, whom to tag on social media etc. They are routinely used in social media campaigns by various organisations including political parties.
In the same case, a non-bailable warrant has been issued against Mumbai based advocate Nikita Jacob and environment activist Shantanu Muluk, following which both have been given protection from arrest after they approached the Bombay High Court.