Disha Ravi Moves Delhi HC, Alleges Police Leaked Private Chats To Media

Disha Ravi Moves Delhi HC: Activist Disha Ravi, arrested for alleged circulation of a toolkit supporting farmers protest, filed a petition in Delhi High Court asking to restrict media leaks of probe material of her case. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India, has denied any leakage from the police.

Mehta also said that the Delhi police will file an affidavit on the same but the judges hearing Ravi's plea, Justice Pratibha M Singh, said that it "requires consideration." The Delhi High Court proceeded to issue a notice to the News Broadcasting Standards Authority regarding Disha Ravi's private chats being published by them. Another hearing on the matter will take place on February 19.

Ravi's petition alleging Delhi Police of leaking her case's material to media also asked the court to restrict media outlets from publishing parts from her private messages. The 22-year-old climate activist based out of Bangalore had been arrested by Delhi Police for allegedly circulating a toolkit supporting farmers protests. According to police, the same toolkit was shared with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg which she tweeted on February 3. The police are claiming that the protests at Red Fort on Republic were also a consequence of the toolkit. There have been two more people charged with the same crime along with Ravi, Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk. The two were granted transit bail.

The Delhi court on Tuesday granted Disha Ravi to access the FIR document filed against her along with the remand papers. She is also now allowed to have daily 30-minute phone calls with her family and 15-minute meetings with her lawyer.

The Delhi police claim that the toolkit was spread to tarnish India's image and they are also looking into the involvement of a UK-based non-governmental organisation Extinction Rebellion known as XR in the case. Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk are reportedly members of XR NGO.