Toolkit Case: Who are Disha Ravi, Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk

Disha Ravi is a climate activist and one of the founders of the "Friday for Future" campaign.  She heads the India wing of the campaign. The 21-year-old is a student of Mount Carmel College, one of Bengaluru's top women's colleges. She has been sent to five-day police custody, a decision by Magistrate that many found appalling. Disha has maintained that she didn't author any toolkit but simply made two edits to it.

She has outrightly rubbished allegations that she is a part of “Khalistani conspiracy”. According to The Wire, during the hearing, she said she was just supporting farmers.  “I supported farmers because they are our future and we all need to eat.”

According to her LinkedIn profile, Nikita is a practising advocate enrolled with the Maharashtra & Goa State Bar Council and registered with the Bombay HC (OS). She is now a human right and environmental activist as well. A civil lawyer, Nikita is a graduate of Indian Law Society's Law College, Pune. She has interest and experience in advisory work, litigation and alternative dispute resolution. "Social justice is and will always be the need of the hour," she says on her LinkedIn profile.

The 30-year-old advocate told the police that the information in the toolkit does not in any manner incite riots or violence and is simply a pack of information from various sources. "No weapons, no violence, no mention of anything remotely violent in the toolkit or any of our communication," she has asserted. According to NDTV, Nikita has moved the Bombay High Court seeking protection against the arrest.

The third accused in the "toolkit" case, Shantanu Muluk is a native of Beed in Maharashtra. An engineer by profession, Muluk runs an NGO. The police have alleged that his account owns the toolkit Google doc. The Delhi Police have also alleged that Disha, Nikita and Muluk had come in contact with the banned "Poetic Justice Foundation" via a Canada-based woman, Puneet.

On January 11, the police say they had a meeting over Zoom where they discussed the farmers' tractor rally on Republic Day. The three have been accused of creating the document and disseminating it to others. Muluk's lawyer Satej Jadhav said a non-bailable warrant (NBW) has been issued against his client in the FIR the Delhi Police’s cyber cell filed in the case.