22-year-old climate change activist Disha Ravi, who was arrested and sent to five-day police custody by Delhi Police in Greta Thunberg toolkit case, has moved the Delhi High Court seeking action against news channels India Today, News 18 and Times Now for violative reporting in the case, reported LiveLaw.
Delhi HC will hear the plea today (Thursday) at 2.15 pm. The hearing will be heard before Justice Prathiba Singh of Delhi HC.
She has moved the Delhi HC seeking to restrain Delhi Police from leaking any material regarding the investigation related to case to the media. The investigation material includes personal chats with any third party.
In the plea she sought directions to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to take action against Times Now, India Today, News 18 and other TV channels reporting on the case and allegedly violates Disha's right to privacy.
Disha was arrested by the Delhi Police from the Soladevanahalli area of Bengaluru on Saturday in connection with a "toolkit" related to the farmers' protest, circulated by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The Delhi Police accused the 22-year-old activist of “sharing” and “spreading” a ‘toolkit’ related to the farmers’ protest that was posted by international climate activist Greta Thunberg. An FIR was filed by the cybercrime unit of the Delhi Police against the creators of the toolkit on February 4. Though toolkits are Google documents used to prepare a social media campaign or plan protests, the Delhi Police have registered an FIR under sedition and conspiracy, alleging that this toolkit was being used to malign India.
Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava on Tuesday said the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi was made in accordance with law which "doesn't differentiate between a 22-year-old or 50-year-old".
Shrivastava said it is wrong when people say that there were lapses in the arrest of the 22-year-old activist. Ravi was arrested from Bengaluru on Saturday in connection with a protest toolkit backing the farmers' agitation.
Police claimed that she had sent the toolkit to teen climate activist Greta Thunberg through the Telegram app, and also "coaxed her to act on it". "Disha Ravi's arrest has been made in accordance with law which doesn't differentiate between a 22-year-old or a 50-year-old," the Delhi Police chief said.
He said Ravi has been sent to five-day police custody and the matter was being probed. Ravi along with Mumbai lawyer Nikita Jacob and Pune engineer Shantanu created the toolkit and shared it with others to tarnish India's image, the Delhi Police had said on Monday.
The data was also deleted, police claimed, adding that Ravi's Telegram account shows many links related to the toolkit had been removed. Non-bailable warrants have been issued against Jacob and Shantanu.
Meanwhile, support poured in from several actors, celebrities and environmentalists from across Bengaluru and the country for the 22-year-old.
Climate activists visited the police station near Disha’s house and presented saplings to the police. However, sources said that the local police had no role in the arrest and did not know that a police team from Delhi had reached Bengaluru on Saturday to arrest Disha.
