Toolkit investigation: Delhi Police writes to Zoom, seeks details of meeting ahead of Republic Day violence

The Delhi Police on Tuesday wrote to video-conferencing app Zoom, seeking details of a meeting attended by Poetic Justice Foundation founder MO Dhaliwal that took place ahead of the January 26 violence, concerning the 'toolkit' document case.

According to the sources, the Delhi Police has written to Zoom seeking details of participants who attended the meeting ahead of the Republic Day violence during the farmer's tractor rally in the national capital.

'Climate activist' Nikita Jacob, who is involved in the controversial "Toolkit" document case related to farmers' protest, on Monday admitted that there was a Zoom meeting before Republic Day, which was attended by Poetic Justice Foundation founder MO Dhaliwal, and other fellow activists including Disha Ravi.

According to the sources, four days ago Special Cell team went to Jacob's house and examined her electronic gadgets. Delhi Police told her that they would again question her but she is currently unavailable.

The Delhi Police has also written to messaging application WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) to get the details of the WhatsApp group created by the 'climate activist' Disha Ravi on December 6.

"The group was created for collaborating the activities related to farmers' agitation and was named 'International Farmers Strike'," the sources said.

According to the sources, there are more than 10 members in the chat group, later Disha deleted numbers of those members from her phone.

Sources said Disha wrote to Greta Thunberg, a Sweden-based climate activist, on WhatsApp, saying, "Okay can you not tweet the toolkit at all. Can we just not say anything at all for a while. I am gonna talk to lawyers. I am sorry but our names are on it and we can literally get Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against us."

Meanwhile, Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava responding to the questions raised on the arrest of Disha Ravi said the arrest was done as per the procedures.

"As far as Disha's arrest is concerned, it was done as per the procedures. Law does not differentiate between a 22-year-old and a 50-year-old. She was produced before a court, which sent her to 5-day police custody. It is false when people say that there were lapses in the arrest," Shrivastava said.

Previously, 21-year-old Disha Ravi was arrested from Bengaluru in connection with the formulation and dissemination of the Toolkit document, in the ongoing farmers' protest. She was one of the editors of the 'Toolkit' document.

Disha was later sent to five days of police custody. Later on Monday, the police also issued a non-bailable warrant against activists Jacob and Shantanu, a resident of Beed in Maharashtra.

According to the Delhi Police, the editors of the toolkit collaborated with the pro-Khalist Poetic Justice Foundation to spread disaffection against the Indian state. Disha was the one who shared the Toolkit Doc with Greta Thunberg.

Last week, Disha was presented before a Delhi Court that remanded her five days of police custody. Disha Ravi broke down inside the courtroom and told the judge that she has edited only two lines and she wanted to support the farmers' protest.

Earlier, the Delhi Police sent a communication to Google seeking registration details and activity log of the account through which a "toolkit" related to the farmers' protest was created and uploaded on the social media platform.

( With inputs from ANI )