Toolkit case: Disha Ravi moves Delhi HC against info leak to news channels

Toolkit case: Disha Ravi moves Delhi HC against info leak to news channels

She has also sought to restrain media from publishing extracts of her private chats.

Disha Ravi

NEW DELHI: Climate activist Disha Ravi, who is currently in police remand, has moved the Delhi high court seeking a direction to Delhi police against leaking any material to the media in relation to the toolkit case.

Ravi has also prayed for a direction to the Union government to take appropriate action against News18, India Today, Times Now and all other satellite TV channels under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 for compromising her fair trial rights and privacy.

In her plea, she has also sought to restrain media from publishing extracts of her private chats and communication.

According to the petition, the 22-year-old activist claimed she is being "viscerally attacked" by Delhi police and several media houses on the basis of leaked investigative matter and prejudicial press briefings.

Such conduct, the plea stated, goes against her presumption of innocence, and violates her right to fair trial, thereby affecting the administration of justice. Ravi said she’s severely aggrieved and prejudiced by the "media trial" surrounding her arrest and the ongoing investigation.

Ravi is the first person to be arrested by the Delhi police in the toolkit case, for allegedly sharing and editing the document intended to help the farmers’ protest against the new agricultural laws. 'Toolkit is a common term used by social activists for campaign material and was tweeted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg in support of the Indian farmers' protest.

The Delhi police has claimed that Ravi started a WhatsApp Group and collaborated with a pro-Khalistani Poetic Justice Foundation to make the toolkit document to disaffection against India, a charge that the activist has strongly denied.