Nikita Jacob gets pre-arrest bail in toolkit case

Activist Nikita Jacob, who has been accused in the Greta Thunberg toolkit case, was granted three-week transit bail by the Bombay High Court.

A transit bail is filed to seek protection from arrest during transit if a case is registered against you in a distant district or another state. The bail filed before the Session court grants one protection till the time one files the actual anticipatory bail application before the court, which actually has jurisdiction to hear your anticipatory bail application. An anticipatory bail application can be heard only by Session court which has jurisdiction over the police station that has registered FIR against you.

In case of arrest, she will be released on a personal bond and surety of Rs 25,000 each.

After the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi, Delhi Police had intensified efforts to nab two other activists Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Mallick after obtaining non-bailable warrants against them, alleging that they were involved in preparing the "toolkit" related to the farmers' protest along with pro-Khalistani elements.

Also read | Toolkit case: After Disha Ravi's arrest, Delhi Police look for Mumbai lawyer, Pune engineer

The police action immediately attracted criticism with senior Congress MP Jairam Ramesh tweeting, "Delhi Police on the rampage. After Disha Ravi, it is now the turn of another young woman, Nikita Jacob. More will no doubt follow...This is tanashahi (dictatorship) in New India called Amit Shahi!"

Joint Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Prem Nath told reporters that Nikita, a lawyer practicing in Bombay High Court, had fled from her house in Mumbai, while Shantanu, an engineer, was not at his residence in Maharashtra's Beed when police went there this weekend.

On Tuesday, the Bombay High Court granted transit bail to Beed-based engineer-activist Shantanu Muluk.

According to Prem Nath, Nikita and Shantanu were in a Zoom meeting with around 60-70 people organised by the pro-Khalistani Poetic Justice Foundation and collaborated with them to prepare the 'toolkit' on farmers' protest.

Searches "during day time" at Nikita's residence yielded two laptops and an I-phone. She was asked to give a written undertaking that she would join the investigation at her residence on February 12 but she was found absconding when the investigators reached there, he claimed.