Toolkit case: Bombay HC grants transit bail to Shantanu Muluk; order on Nikita Jacob’s plea on Wednesday

The Aurangabad Bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted transit anticipatory bail for a period of ten days to activist Shantanu Muluk in connection with the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Delhi Police related to “toolkit” which was circulated on social media.

The order was passed by Justice Vibha Kankanwadi.

In his plea, Muluk had sought transit anticipatory bail on the grounds that the Delhi Police had stationed itself in the town of Beed, which is his native town, for the past three days and seized several material without following due process of law, Bar & Bench reported.

Muluk is one of the founder of the XR India, an organisation working for environment and creator of a platform where information regarding ongoing protests would be displayed and modes of peaceful protest were given.

Muluk's contention was that he and his colleagues are innocent and had bonafide intentions with regard to the farmer's protests.

He argued that the registration of the case under Section 153-A (promoting enmity between different communities) is a blatant abuse of legal provisions by the State to subdue the voice of rightful dissent.

Muluk had stated in his plea that the actual dissenters are suppressed farmers and that he only extended his support to the dissenters.

His application came on the same day Nikita Jacob a lawyer and activist from Mumbai sought for transit bail from the Principal Bench of Bombay High Court.

He had also cited the case of climate activist Disha Ravi's arrest as another reason why he was apprehending his own arrest.

Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court has ruled that it will pass an order tomorrow in the transit bail petition filed by lawyer and activist Nikita Jacob. The matter was heard today by Justice PD Naik.

The Court said that it would pass an order in Jacob's plea tomorrow after perusing the order passed by the Aurangabad Bench of the High Court, which granted transit bail to activist Shantanu Muluk,

Jacob sought transit anticipatory bail for a period of four weeks and protection from any coercive action pending the present application.

Jacob's plea states that she has no religious, political or financial motive for researching or editing or circulating communication packs/toolkits for raising awareness, let alone to incite violence, riots or cause other physical harms.

She has also alleged in her application that some trolls and bots are circulating her personal information, email-ids, phone numbers, social media handles and pictures on social media.

The plea further claims that Jacob found out from a social media account by the name Legal Rights Observatory that a complaint was filed with the Delhi Police seeking to "pin the blame" for the violence on January 26, 2021 upon her.

Jacob has raised apprehension that despite co-operating with the investigating machinery, she may be arrested due to political vendetta and media trial.

She has submitted that since the FIR is registered in Delhi and she is a permanent resident of Mumbai, she would be unable to defend herself.