Thread by @TripathiGee

Toolkit case: hearing in bail plea moved by climate activist Disha Rana to begin in 5 minutes before ASJ Dharmender Rana at Patiala House Court

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Mr Siddharth Agarwal is appearing for Disha while Prosecutor Irfan Ahmad is appearing for state

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Prosecutor: Since accused has been giving evasive replies and the same need to be used to confront Shantanu Muluk who'll be joining investigation by Feb 22. That's why we had asked for JC till Feb 22 only

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Prosecutor: Magistrate yesterday remanded Disha to JC till Feb 22. That's why this application is premature

Court: show us how she's barred from moving this bail plea. Is there a legal bar?

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Prosecutor: There's some incriminating evidence against Disha which can't be shared with defence at this stage. We'll give the same to the court in sealed cover

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ASG Raju informs the court that he'll be leading the arguments

Court: What exactly is the Prosecution's story, what is the evidence against her, and how the same is used to argue her detention

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Court tells ASG that he's only partially audible. ASG is appearing through virtual mode

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ASG: Informs the court and Poetic Justice Foundation. He argues that PJF is a secessionist organisation which advocates for Khalistan and tweets regarding the same on social media

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ASG: PJF has also used Instagram to publish posts to generate hatred towards India.

"PJF got in touch with Disha to device a scheme to make a criminal conspiracy on farmers' protest as they wanted an Indian face", he argues

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: A WhatsApp group was created and PJF got in touch with the accused. Later, the accused also had a detailed zoom call with PJF. There was no need for the accused to have meeting with an organisation whose credentials are such.

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: The accused was creating a conspiracy with the PJF. Not one, but 2 and 3 zoom meetings were scheduled with PJF

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ASG: Toolkit may look innocuous, but it is not as innocuous as it is made to appear. The final toolkit was also shared with PJF

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Court: can you please express in simple terms, what is this toolkit?

Agarwal: Toolkit is simply a document

ASG: Sikhs for Justice is a banned organisation under UAPA

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: Khalistani elements were also in the picture of Jan 26 incident. There was prize money in USD for hoisting the Khalistani flag

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ASG: Earlier this toolkit was supposed to be shared with one selected people. However It was leaked in social media, and then the accused panicked and made deletions in the toolkit, and messages. They deliberately tried to destroy the evidence

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG is reading out excerpts from the toolkit

"Farmers strike was only a facade for them to run their own agenda', he submits
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ASG: Cites parts of the toolkit which were allegedly later removed by the accused. References to 'Farmers protest cheatsheet' and 'Ask India' were removed. These sections were hyperlinked to websites that talked about Kashmir genocide

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ASG: the hyperlinks in the toolkit took the reader to another sites with hosted content to defame India. They said that Indian army committed genocide in Kashmir and Assam

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ASG continues to read from the 'Cheatsheet' with as per the police was hyperlinked in the toolkit.

'These hyperlinks took to a website titled currentgenocidewatch.com

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ASG: This hyperlinked website has a section 'Genocide Watch India' which talked about Kashmir.

'This has nothing to do with farmers protest. It rather had objectionable content to defame India', he argues

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ASG reads out parts from this hyperlinked website which reads out history of human rights violations in Kashmir.

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ASG: the purpose of the toolkit was to divert the reader to other websites which would influence his thinking

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ASG: In background of Kashmir and Assam, this toolkit was asking people to organise protests

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ASG: toolkit asks the reader to refer to PJF.

'They wanted to create a movement to camouflage the act of hoisting the Khalistani flag. In the edit, they removed PJF'

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ASG: Before Jan 26 violence, they had prepared certain templates to be shared by persons. They also prepared in advance the kind of tweets that had to be posted

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ASG: Toolkit also had embedded Google Doc which had templates for social media posts on violence and oppression by police

'If it was a simple toolkit, then why this? Why did it talk about future events', he argues

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: PJF was also carrying out a similar agenda of protests on Jan 26 worldwide, just like the toolkit. It's not a coincidence. It's a well planned conspiracy. They wanted an Indian face, so they used the facade of farmers protest

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: One of the co accused, Nikita Jacob, has also absconded. Disha had a right to edit the toolkit which she used to delete the evidence. This is the work of a guilty mind. If she was correct, why would she remove the track?

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: Vancouver is the hotbed of anti-Indian activites related to Khalistan. Investigations revealed a link between Vancouver based Kisan Ekta company and the accused. In fact, a WhatsApp group was also created in this regard

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ASG: Shantanu came to Delhi in remained here till Jan 27. He was trying to see if something happens on Jan 26. He has no reason to come here, all this needs to be investigated

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ASG: the fact that they shared the toolkit with PJF shows that their intention was not farmers protest but it was something more sinister.

'One of the purpose was to say that police reacted violently to the protest', he argues

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ASG: In the toolkit that had anticipated for police to act with violence. Thank God it didn't happen. They didn't succeed. Imagine what would've happened if they could've succeeded?

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ASG: That's why @GretaThunberg didn't share this toolkit prior to Jan 26. Due to her massive following, she was asked to share it after Jan 26

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ASG: When Ravi was first examined, she didn't agree to making any Whatsapp group. She lied, despite the fact she created it. She panicked because she knew police will know about it. She worked clandestinely to create violence

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: Ravi lied to the police that she knows nothing about the toolkit. We also got her phone number which she used to create the group. ASG reads out the phone number

Court: Please maintain restrain, asks media to not report the phone number revealed by ASG

@TheQuint #DishaRavi

ASG: Investigation is at a critical stage, she can't be released on bail as of now. When we showed her other evidence her lies were caught and she said, 'yes I created the group'

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ASG: She's being evasive, constantly denying everything. That's why we have to confront her with more evidence

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ASG: They wanted people to come inside Delhi. Whatever happened in Delhi on Jan 26 was due to people entering Delhi

'Disha is the only who reached out to @GretaThunberg for the toolkit', he says

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ASG: 'Ask India Why' is a website created to support anti-India Khalistani movement. This website was hyperlinked at several places in the toolkit

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: it was revealed in police remand that Disha created the WhatsApp group and she had also collaborated with the PJF.

'A PJF document is found in Disha's laptop which talks about the toolkit', he argues

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ASG: Disha had deleted the entire Whatsapp chat from her phone to erase evidence connecting her with the toolkit. Even the email IDs were removed from the newly uploaded toolkit

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ASG: Disha had also asked @GretaThunberg to remove the document. Why would she do that? This shows that there was a sinister design behind the toolkit. It shows her guilty mind.

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ASG: Disha's chat with @GretaThunberg shows that she was aware of her incriminating actions and that was trying to hide her identity

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ASG: Our case is that this was a sinister design to instigate violence and defame India. A thorough investigation needs to be made

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ASG: Jacobs was granted transit bail not on merits but on the basis of a SC judgment. @DelhiPolice was not even made party to that case when it is us who are investigating the case

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ASG: They can't cite Jacobs transit bail order here as the same was not passed on merits

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ASG: We require custodial interrogation as investigation is at nascent stage and large volumes of data need to be analysed, and if bail is granted it would frustrate all of that

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ASG: if released, accused can destroy relevant data and tamper with the evidence

'She might have access to another mobile through which she can delete electronic data', he argues

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ASG: There are two persons with strong Khalistani links: Peter Friedrich

Friedrich is a strong proponent of Khalistanib movement and was also part of this toolkit

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*one person

ASG: Khalistani movement is a common link that connects all these persons

'We also found a chat which shows that they were trying to delete the tracks that lead to Greta or Simon', he argues

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ASG: Our preliminary data reveals that this toolkit is not as innocuous as they claim it to be. We're still investigating the same

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Court: Is PJF a banned organisation?
ASG: No, it's not.
Court: Whether some investigation pending against Dhaliwal and Lal, founders of PJF?
ASG: No, I'm not aware
Court: Then how do we impute such things to them
ASG: Because of their tweets. They're hardcore Khalistanis

Court: Do we have any evidence against MO Dhaliwal, Anita Lal, and PJF, or are these imputations?

Prosecutor: There are various docs where Dhaliwal and Lal claim to be proud Khalistanis

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ASG: Investigation is at a nascent stage. It's not a coincidence that these people met, it's a conspiracy

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Prosecutor: On Jan 11 a zoom meeting took place which was attended by 70 people across the globe. It was also attended by MO Dhaliwal, Anita Lal, Nikita Jacobs and Shantanu Muluk

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Prosecutor: After this, Disha, Jacobs and Muluk discuss this meeting and preparation of toolkit.

Court: So you're saying that this toolkit is not problematic but it's just a facade

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Court: There's some confusion here. Do you think the toolkit was just a facade or was it incriminating?

Prosecutor: Since the accused acted upon the toolkit, it becomes incriminatory

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Court: Shantanu Muluk had shared the toolkit with PJF and Ravi had consented to the same. Muluk presented in Delhi till Jan 27 to ensure that the plan of the toolkit is properly executed

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Court: Disha used her phone to create the Whatsapp group and tweet @GretaThunberg

She had forwarded a tweet to Greta and which Greta later tweeted through her account

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Prosecutor: Their intention was to make this agitation international. Their purpose was to assist the Khalistani movement

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Court: If a person is emotionally swayed towardsa cause and then I unknowingly meet some people who are associated with some questionable organisations. Can you incriminate that

ASG: Everyone knows Dhaliwal and his credentials.
Court: I don't know him

Court: Even I don't know PJF, you can't say that 'everyone knows that they're Khalistani'. Also, can you incriminate someone who had no knowledge about the affiliation of person she's meeting?

ASG: But then why did she panic? It shows she was aware

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Court: I want to know what is the incriminating matter you've collected against her

ASG: The toolkit itself shows the link. Then, she tried to delete evidence and edit the toolkit. This itself is evidence

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Court: What is the evidence collected to connect toolkit with Jan 26 incident?

ASG: In conspiracy, everyone may not have an equal role. We argue that somebody who was related to Khalistani movt was instigated to commit violence

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: the toolkit precedes the violence. It points out course of action

Court: I want you to show how the actions in the toolkit are connected to Jan 26 violence

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ASG: the toolkit has content which asks people to enter Delhi and also provides instigating links that ask people to 'march into Delhi'

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Court: Is there any evidence or are we only to act on surmises, inferences, and conjectures

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ASG: The first evidence is the hyperlinks in the toolkit connecting people to Khalistani websites

second, you're showing people content which shows hatred for India

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: It's not a simple toolkit prepared by NGO, it's a toolkit created in light of the Khalistani movement

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ASG: Disha is not the only individual, many are involved. And they all were aware that Khalistani elements are involved. They knew that some violence can be caused

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ASG: It was not a simple case of organising a 'bandh'.

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ASG shows how the actions of the accused and the toolkit meets the threshold of sedition

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ASG: you asked the people to come to Delhi, you asked people to protest, you showed the people that India is a bad country that kills Muslims

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ASG: The toolkit can't be read in isolation, we need to investigate further.

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ASG: A khalistani flag was hoisted at Red Fort, hundreds of policemen were injured. It's a serious offence. That's why Disha shouldn't be released on bail especially such a crucial stage of investigation

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: accused susceptible to tampering of evidence can't be released on bail

'Also, there's a video which shows Dhaliwal claiming that he's pro-*Khalistani', ASG adds
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Court: apart from claiming that Disha was in touch with secessionists and hyperlinked anti-India content in toolkit, is there any other evidence to connect her with Jan 26 incident

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Prosecutor: Disha wasn't herself present in Delhi, but there's a larger link.

Court: how do you connect actual actors who attacked police on Jan 26 with Disha?

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ASG: execution of an act need not be proved to show presence of a conspiracy

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Court: So should I assume that as of now, apart from the conspiracy there's no other evidence linking Disha to the violence?

ASG: Yes, we're still investigating

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Court: what about the people who committed violence? Have they been arrested?

DCP: Yes, we're investigating them separately

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Court: Prosecutor Sahab, you're not understanding my question. What is the link between the alleged conspiracy and the violence?

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Siddharth Agarwal starts his arguments on behalf of Disha

'I'm here for seeking bail only for Disha' he starts

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Agarwal: Prosecution argues that there's some Khalistani movement which took advantage of farmers protest whether violence was a by product of that

Disha's history, geography, past and future is not related to Khalistan

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Agarwal: There's no reason for a 22 year old from Bangalore to associate herself with Khalistani movt. I'm not exonerating her, but at this stage, there's nothing against her

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Agarwal: Disha is not a rebel without a cause. She feels passionately about environment, agriculture, climate.

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Agarwal: Not a single communication or association is shown by the prosecution to link Disha with Sikhs For Justice

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Agarwal: Police has not even shown whether SFJ is connected with PJF!

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Agarwal: SFJ is the only banned organisation in police's reply. And there's nothing to link Disha with SFJ

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Agarwal: When a person meets someone, he can't immediately figure out that the other person is a secessionist. 'Talking to a secessionist doesn't make you a secessionist'

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Agarwal: Even till today, govt has not banned PJF. This shows that even in their eyes it's not a terror organisation

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Agarwal: PJF came into existence in Feb 2020. Was it that popular that as a person who interacted with them would know that it's a Khalistani organisation?

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Agarwal: Police's most critical evidence is the zoom call. Disha was not even a part of that zoom call.

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Agarwal: If highlighting a protest on a international level is an offense, then Disha is guilty. If it's sedition, then keep me in jail

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Agarwal: FIR says the the toolkit targets yoga. So if I promote kung-fu, is it sedition? FIR says it targets chai. So if I don't like chai, am I seditious?

'The standards of sedition has been lowered to such an extent'

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Agarwal: Was that toolkit seditious? Or was it only when it was released that you got to know about some conspiracy?

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Agarwal: the ingredient of sedition is the communication. The communication needs to cause disaffection.

'Police's case is not that the toolkit is seditious, but that it will lead to something seditious becausev these people are not good. That's not sedition',

@TheQuint

Agarwal: 124A is not a grave offence in law. It is punishable only with fine also. How can they call it a grave offence?

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Agarwal: I'm really suprised about arguments such as 'there can be more mobile phones'. Were you sleeping in 5 days of PC? You didn't even take her to Bangalore once to find out these 'other mobile phones or laptops'

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Agarwal: How can they say Disha shifted blame on Shantanu and Nikita when the latter are already named as key conspirators in police's case

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Agarwal: The only reason why they want to keep Disha in Jail till Jan 22 because that's the day they're expecting Shantanu to come to Delhi to join investigation

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Agarwal: When Nikita and Shantanu can join investigation without being in custody, Disha can also do that. She can remain in Delhi

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Agarwal: The balance between accused's right to liberty and police's right to investigate was disturbed when she was remanded to JC

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Agarwal: PJF is not a banned organisation, it doesn't matter Disha talked to them or not

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Agarwal: Did the police file the toolkit from the pockets of the man who hoisted the flag or attacked police on Jan 26? Did he say that he was influenced by the toolkit

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Agarwal: They have no matterial to show that the toolkit instigated people to commit violence. Out of the 149 people arrested, did they find even a single person who had read the toolkit or was in touch with Disha?

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Agarwal asks the judge to read the toolkit

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Agarwal: toolkit nowhere mentions that a flag should be hoisted or violence should be committed. Maybe they want to say the Farmer's March itself was wrong, but how can it be, as the police itself had given permission for the same

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Agarwal: Was it seditious for someone to create awareness about the farmers protest, asking people to go to Delhi to attend a march which was allowed by the police to take place

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Agarwal: Is the organiser of the march accused of sedition? We just want to fit anything anywhere

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Agarwal: People who committed violence are being dealt with. You read my toolkit and tell me what are the offences made therein

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Agarwal: Toolkit asks people to share solidarity messages, do digital strike, participate tweetstorm, and protest outside Ambani Adani's house. It nowhere asks people to cause violence. Can this be sedition?

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Agarwal: Genocide Watch website is accessible even today. It was made 40 years ago by an international NGO and talks about genocides that took place in many countries.

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Agarwal reads out the para on Kashmir mentioned on Genocide Watch website

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Agarwal: neither expressly not implicitly the toolkit talks about inciting violence

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Agarwal: Someone can have a problem with me highlighting an issue, but it's not sedition

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Agarwal: Unfortunately for Disha, her fears have come true. Her fear was that despite doing no wrong, some people may twist her work and frame her
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Agarwal: Even if she would've deleted whatsapp chat, it's electronic evidence, which is easily recoverable. They're blowing it out of proportion

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Agarwal: There's no necessity to keep Disha incarcerated, there's nothing that cannot be achieved by releasing her on conditions

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Agarwal: We should not forget that all these statements about lies and deletions were made to a police officer. Will they be able to prove it in a trial?
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Agarwal: If Disha had a guilty man, why would she use her own phone to indulge in what police calls such a big conspiracy?

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Agarwal: Police's maximum allegation is that Disha reached out to @GretaThunberg to talk about the Farmers protest. If you look at that tweet, you'll see it is just about farm protest and not about Khalistani movt

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ASG rebuts: Our case is not that she's a Khalistani. Our case is that she has links with these banned or Khalistani organisations

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

ASG: our case is not that PJF is banned. We're saying that it's openly pro-Khalistani. We're saying that toolkit shouldn't been seen in isolation

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ASG: The link connecting the toolkit and the Jan 26 incident are the hyperlinks to GW in the toolkit

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ASG: the audience of the toolkit also included Khalistanis in India. The toolkit would've instigated these persons to march to Delhi

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Agarwal: Despite having power under sec 69A of IT Act, the govt did not ban websites such as GW hyperlinked in the toolkit

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Court inquires about this entire thing about 'targeting yoga and chai' in the FIR

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DCP: the FIR refers to PJF document which says, 'target the image of India, yoga and chai'

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit

Court has reserved the order. Will pronounce the verdict on Tuesday

@TheQuint #DishaRavi #Toolkit