21-year-old Bengaluru climate activist 'picked' up by police for sharing Greta's toolkit

In a closely-guarded operation, the Delhi police special cell on Saturday reportedly ‘picked’ up  Disha Ravi - a young student climate activist and one of the founders of ‘Fridays For Future’ (FFF) campaign - from North Bengaluru for questioning for allegedly disseminating the ‘toolkit’ related to farmer protests in Delhi through social media sites, said sources.

According to highly-placed sources, Disha (21) was ‘picked’ up from her house in Soladevanahalli. She is the co-founder of FFF – a global climate strike movement that started in August 2018, when internationally-known teenaged Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg began a school strike for climate – in Bengaluru. Bengaluru police remained tightlipped about the operation.

Disha, a Bachelor of Business Administration graduate from Mount Carmel College, is working as a culinary experience manager with Good Mylk company. She was working from home when she was picked up, sources said. Her father is an athletics coach in Mysuru, while mother is a housewife.

The cybercrime special cell of the Delhi Police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) on February 4 on charges of sedition, criminal conspiracy and promoting hatred among groups under Sections 124A, 120A and 153 A of the Indian Penal Code against the “creators” of a ‘toolkit’ on farmer protests, which was shared by Thunberg. The 18-year-old had deleted the original tweet but had subsequently tweeted another toolkit.

‘Toolkit exposes conspiracy by overseas network’

Thunberg’s tweets in support of farmers protests near Delhi against farm laws were among many posts that had drawn global attention to the farmers’ agitation, which had begun in November last year. The Cyber Cell of the Delhi Police is investigating several tweets, but the subject of the FIR refers to Greta Thunberg’s tweet on a “toolkit” guiding people on how to support the farmers’ protests.

Special Commissioner (Crime Branch), Delhi Police, Praveer Ranjan had stated that a preliminary inquiry indicated that the toolkit in question was created by the Poetic Justice Foundation, which has been termed as a “pro-Khalistani organisation”. “The ‘toolkit’ exposes the conspiracy by an organised overseas network to instigate the farmer protests,” the officer had added.