The reasons on which Disha gets bail justifies that her arrest was completely baseless!!
Continuing the case of Disha Ravi, the 22 year old youngster arrested in the matter of editing and sharing a toolkit aimed to garner supporters for the protesting farmers in India. Now she must be back to her home in her City as she successfully obtained bail on 23rd Feb.
She was accused of conspiring against the Indian Government, of being part of an international conspiracy to defame India, of sedition, of propagating violence among people who she influenced to dissent against the Government. All of these charges are of course baseless accusations.
On her bail hearing, additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana has granted bail for Disha Ravi stating excellent statements that are quoted below which explains how frivolous the charges for Disha Ravi’s arrest were in the first place.
India’s foremost climate activist, Disha Ravi’s bail judgement hearing case
Disha Ravi, for those of you who have not read my previous articles detailing her arrest case is a youth climate activist, a co-founder of the Indian wing of the ‘Friday’s for Future’, a group that has college and school students do campaigns urging Government and society to pay heed to the threat of climate change and implement, adopt such measures that would reduce and lessen damage to environment, to avert the onset of climate change.
Quoting judge Dharmender Rana, we too can connect with his reasoning - “Considering the scanty and sketchy evidence available on record, I do not find any palpable reasons to breach the general rule of ‘Bail’ against a 22 years old young lady, with absolutely blemish free criminal antecedents and having firm roots in the society, and send her to jail.”
Toolkit evidence against Disha Ravi is not valid to declare she’s an enemy of the Government of India!!
Coming down to the evidence the Central police stated for Disha being involved in the seditious category of activities was her link with the toolkit. According to them it caused dissatisfaction among Indian Citizens against Indian Government, and encouraged them to dissent against it. That toolkit had international Citizens and countries go against Indian Government, and interfere in their affairs.
However that alluded to, toolkit talked about supporting the ongoing mostly peaceful farmers protest through lawful non-violent methods like twitter storms, digital strike, petitions, protesting in front of Indian Embassies and offices of Corporates. The latter being the ones to be benefited out of contentious farm laws which has prompted lakhs of farmers to protest in the borders of Indian’s Capital for more than 3 months, claiming that the 3 black farm laws are anti-farmer but pro Corporate friendly.
Disha’s lawyer Siddharth Agrawal in court too clearly explained the nature of the contents of the toolkit -
“The toolkit talks about digital strike, this doesn’t mean the Gulf Strike. Physical action called for in Embassies, Ambani, Adani offices – doesn’t mean throwing stones. These are tools for people to express their feelings across the globe.”
Now Quoting Judge Dharmender Rana’s analysis of the nature of the toolkit -
“The perusal of the said ‘Toolkit’ reveals that any call for any kind of violence is conspicuously absent. In my considered opinion, Citizens are conscience keepers of government in any democratic Nation. They cannot be put behind the bars simply because they choose to disagree with the State policies.”
“The offence of sedition cannot be invoked to minister to the wounded vanity of the governments.”
Yes… I would like the second para here to be amplified again as it beautifully explains that - “The offence of sedition cannot be invoked to minister to the wounded vanity of the governments.”
Lovely, to hear the truth of this case so well put by Judge Dharmender Rana.
Disha is no international conspirator, all she did was exercising her basic fundamental rights
Posted in twitter account of LiveLawIndia
Further statements of Judge Dharmender Rana reaffirmed the point that everyone has a fundamental right to dissent, and the right of freedom and expression, that they can communicate their opinions to global audiences, so striking off the international conspiracy charge on Disha Ravi.
"Difference of opinion, disagreement, divergence, dissent, or for that matter, even disapprobation, are recognised legitimate tools to infuse objectivity in state policies. An aware and assertive citizenry, in contradistinction with an indifferent or docile citizenry, is indisputably a sign of a healthy and vibrant democracy."
Posted in twitter account of LiveLawIndia
…Even our founding fathers accorded due respect to the divergence of opinion by recognising the freedom of speech and expression as an inviolable fundamental right. The right to dissent is firmly enshrined under Article 19 of The Constitution of India. In my considered opinion the freedom of speech and expression includes the right to seek a global audience.
There are no geographical barriers on communication. A Citizen has the fundamental rights to use the best means of imparting and receiving communication, as long as the same is permissible under the four corners of law and as such have access to audience abroad.
Disha deserves to be freed from the charges levied on her, bail does not deliver justice to her
Tweet by Meena Harris, niece of Kamala Harris
These excellent observations of Judge Dharmender Rana only succeeded in granting bail in court to Disha Ravi, which is a temporary release order for her although she is still under trial for this frivolous toolkit case and is not freed from the charges levied on her. She had to provide two sureties amounting to 1 lakh for her bail, to guarantee her appearance in court for this case when required.
It’s still unfair. This means still Disha can be troubled by authorities with this ongoing case against her for a while, still I bet this it’s better than her being in jail, and already the case for charging Disha in this fashion looks completely baseless after Judge Dharmender Rana’s statements don’t you think.?
@tipu curate 4
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Regards @mintymile
When I read the previous news, I considered this type of situation absurd, unfortunately some governments tend to resort to these obsolete practices of completely unfounded arrests to create fear in the population, and certainly in most cases these strategies reduce the impact of the demonstrations, I hope that these arbitrations against activists or defenders of the environment do not continue to be discussed. Kind regards.
Hi, @lupafilotaxia , you mean I should not talk about these things here, I did not get what you meant the that statement.
Thanks for reading and comminting.