Disha Ravi was arrested from her home in Bengaluru last week (File)
New Delhi:
Disha Ravi, the 22-year-old climate activist arrested February 13 in connection with the “toolkit” case, was granted bail by a Delhi Sessions Court on Tuesday afternoon – subject to provision of two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each.
“Considering the scanty and sketchy evidence on record, I do not find any palpable reason to breach the rule of bail for a 22-year-old girl who has absolutely no criminal antecedent,” Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana said in his bail order.
Shortly afterwards a second judge – Pankaj Sharma, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of the Patiala House Court – disposed off a Delhi Police application seeking extended custody; the police had sought further four days of custody.
Ms Ravi has already spent six days in police custody and two in jail.
Bail was granted today after the court reserved its order on Saturday.
In today’s brief hearing Ms Ravi’s counsel stressed that she had no links with the Khalistani movement, and that a case of sedition could not be sustained.
Delhi Police, opposing grant of bail, said Ms Ravi could tamper evidence if she were to be released.
In last week’s hearing Judge Rana had picked holes in the argument that Ms Ravi and two others – activist Shantanu Muluk and lawyer Nikita Jacob – were in league with secessionists and conspiring to cause violence during the farmers’ Republic Day tractor rally
The judge dubbed Delhi Police’s reasoning “conjecture”.
“What is the evidence collected by you to show the link between her and the January 26 violence? You have argued about her role in toolkit and (that) she (is) in touch with secessionists,” he began.
When the police – represented by Additional Solicitor General SV Raju – said “conspiracy can be seen only through circumstantial evidence,” the judge shot back, “So you don’t have any evidence to connect Disha with the January 26 violence?”
To underscore the point, he added, “How do you connect actual violators with Disha?”
After learning that those who were involved in the tractor rally violence were arrested in another case, the judge stressed: “Where is the connection between conspiracy and offence? I have still not got the answer.”
Appearing for Ms Ravi, counsel Siddharth Agarwal said she had had no contact with secessionists.
There is no evidence to show “she is one (a secessionist)”, Ms Ravi’s lawyer had said, adding that the only text messages submitted (by the police as proof of its claims) were with PJF (Poetic Justice Foundation), which is not a banned organisation.
The only banned organisation in this case is Sikh For Justice, “but even the case of Delhi Police doesn’t show any connection between me and them,” Ms Ravi’s lawyer added.
Disha Ravi is accused of creating and spreading an online document linked to the farmers’ protest against the centre’s agriculture laws – a document the police says was meant to revive a Khalistani group and was part of a global conspiracy to “spread disaffection against the Indian state”.