Bhubaneswar: A 22-year-old student and climate activist from Bengaluru, Disha Ravi, has been in the news after her arrest by Delhi Police in the case involving ‘Toolkit’ tweeted earlier this month by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg to show support for protesting farmers.
The police — which earlier said “Toolkit” was a Khalistani conspiracy to wage war against India — have accused her of being a key conspirator in the document’s formulation and dissemination and alleged that she is trying to revive a Khalistani group. “I did not make Toolkit. We wanted to support the farmers. I edited two lines on February 3,” Disha Ravi told the Delhi court where she was produced earlier today. The court has sent her to police custody for five days for further questioning.
Talking about her personal life, Disha Ravi, a college student at Mount Carmel College in Bengaluru, started Fridays for Future India, coordinating strikes in different areas in the city every Friday, as she told Citizen Matters in 2019.
Ravi is the first person to be arrested in the case. “We have found that she made several changes in the toolkit related to farmers protest and further spread it in certain groups on social media,” an unidentified police official told The Hindu.
The young activist’s arrest has left her friends and colleagues stunned. “I am pretty shook right now,” said Arvind, a 27-year-old who volunteered with Fridays for Future till June.
The campaign, he said, conducts awareness drives, strikes across Bangalore on climate change. “We are a movement, just a bunch of people working towards a cause,” he said. “We have always taken approvals from the police to hold strikes…this is completely shocking.”