Bombay HC grants 3-week transit anticipatory bail to Nikita Jacob in toolkit case

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted transit anticipatory bail of three weeks to Nikita Jacob in connection with the "Toolkit" document case related to farmers' protest.

"Bombay HC has given an interim relief of three weeks to Nikita Jacob. The judge acknowledged that she has been repeatedly cooperating in the investigation. She will appear for questioning if Delhi Police summons her again. 

Meanwhile, in three weeks' time, we have to approach either appropriate court in Delhi for a regular anticipatory bail application," Sanjukta Dey, Lawyer of Nikita Jacob said.

The court said that in case of arrest, Jacob will be released on a personal bond of Rs 25,000 and one surety of like amount.

Meanwhile, a source in Delhi Police said that Jacob has a bigger role to play in the 'Toolkit' case.

"Jacob was a 'committed operator of the Toolkit. She used to address it as a 'communication package'. The police is analysing about 115 to 120 GB of data which included WhatsApp chats, e-mails, and data recovered from Jacob's pen drive, mobile and desktop. She was using applications like Singal and Telegram for communication," said the source.

They added that Delhi Police is claiming that the 'Toolkit' case is an 'International Warfare' against the country, in which 21-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi and Shantanu Mallikke are also suspects.

Ravi was arrested Sunday and sent to five days of police custody by a Delhi court. She was one of the editors of the 'Toolkit' document.

Earlier, the Delhi Police sent a communication to Google seeking registration details and activity log of the account through which a "toolkit" related to the farmers' protest was created and uploaded on the social media platform.

Two e-mail IDs, one Instagram account, and one Uniform Resource Locator (URL) were mentioned in the toolkit and police have asked for details from the respective platforms.

The police had registered an FIR against unidentified persons in connection with the creators of the 'toolkit'.