The climate activist denied being part of any conspiracy saying she was supporting farmers and made only two edits in the toolkit
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Legal experts have questioned the Patiala House court’s order that sent young climate activist Disha Ravi on a 5-day judicial remand arguing the magistrate should have ensured that the accused was represented by a counsel before passing the order.
Senior lawyer Rebecca Mammen John took to Facebook to express her disappointment over the judicial remand order against Disha. She wrote: “Magistrates must take their duties of Remand seriously and ensure that the mandate of Article 22 of the constitution is scrupulously followed. If the accused was not being represented by counsel at the time of the hearing, the magistrate should have waited till her counsel arrived or in the alternate, provided her with legal aid.”
Disha was arrested on Sunday by a special cell of Delhi police after being detained from her Bengaluru home on charges of supporting farmer protests by sharing a ‘toolkit’ that was tweeted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. The authorities maintain that the toolkit is a part of a global conspiracy being hatched against Indian government amidst the ongoing farmers’ protests in the country against the government’s pro-corporate agrarian reforms.
Reports said that Disha broke down while she appeared before the magistrate. She denied being part of the conspiracy saying she was supporting farmers and made only two edits in the toolkit.
In her criticism of the remand order, John asked whether the magistrate examined the case diaries and arrest memo and why was Disha brought to Delhi without a transit remand from courts in Bengaluru. She also questioned the 5-day remand of Disha by duty magistrate. “If you are a duty magistrate, sitting on a Sunday, you should at best remand for a day, so that the regular court takes up the matter the next day. Duty magistrates should never send an accused to 5 days PC”, John stated. “This cat and mouse game must stop.”
Another senior lawyer Saurabh Kirpal questioned the need for arresting people at the “drop of the hat”.
If someone is guilty, prosecute and punish them. Pre-trial arrest (as a substitute for punishment) is an abdication of the responsibility of the police to investigate. It also numbs us as a citizenry”, he said in a tweet.
“This arrest is (an) arrest where young people with ideas, with passion are being persecuted for their views… If you non-violently stand for climate change, for farmers you are arrested,” author and historian Ramchandran Guha told media persons at a citizen’s protest in Bengaluru on Monday.
“If on the other hand you go violently from door to door intimidating people to donate for the ruling party you are free. This thuggishness in the name of the BJP is allowed. Protest in the name of democracy and human rights, environmental sustainability is a crime.
Congress slammed the government for arresting Disha and termed the action as ‘shocking’ and ‘unfortunate’.
Kapil Sibbal, senior Congress leader, asked: “Is the state so weak that a tweet threatens its security? Is the state so paranoid that a 22-year-old is a national security threat? Is the state so intolerant that it cannot tolerate youth standing with farmers? Is this the badlav (change) Modiji wanted?”
Another party leader Anand Sharma said in a tweet on Sunday that police should recognise Disha’s “right to liberty and courts must respect the Supreme Court Judgement which says bail is the rule and jail an exception.”
Delhi Police, however, defended the arrest saying it was necessary to identify Pro-Khalistani Group – Poetic Justice Foundation – and its active members, and to recover the deleted WhatsApp Group.