Delhi Police book authors of 'toolkit' shared to organise online support for farmers' protest

New Delhi: Even as Twitter posts by pop star and fashion entrepreneur Rihanna and other global celebrities in support of protesting farmers evoked a reaction from the Government of India, the Delhi Police on Thursday registered an FIR against the creators of "toolkit" that was widely shared on social media platforms to help organise online protests against the government here.

The "toolkit" was also shared on Twitter by 18-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Thunberg had spoken out against the government here for its handling of the farmers' protests.

While early reports on the FIR claimed the case was against Thunberg, the Delhi Police in a press conference clarified that they had not named anyone in their case and had booked individuals responsible for authoring the toolkit.

The toolkit contained background information on the agitation here and instructions on when to storm Twitter with hashtags and posts supporting the agitation.

However, Special Commissioner of Police Praveer Ranjan said on Thursday evening, "The unfolding of events past few days including the violence of January 26 has revealed copycat execution of the 'action plan' detailed in the tool kit."

The police said that a section of the documents titled "prior action" delineates the action plan which includes digital strike-through hashtags on or before January 26. "Tweets storm January 23 onwards, physical action on January 26, watch-out or join farmers march into Delhi and back to borders," police added.

Special CP Ranjan said a preliminary inquiry has revealed that the 'toolkit' in question appears to have been created by a pro-Khalistani Organisation "Poetic Justice Foundation".

The Delhi Police claimed that in the context of farmers' agitation, "while the farmers may not even be aware as to what forces are guiding their actions and setting their agenda, there were clear indicators that hostile deep state actors were either behind it or would join in to exploit the sentiments".

This input was shared with the leaders of various farmer organizations, the police said.

"In the process of monitoring social media, it came to our notice that one document titled "tool kit" was uploaded through one of the handles on a particular social media platform," police said.

According to police, the intention of the creators of the tool kit appeared to be to create disharmony among various social, religious and cultural groups and encourage disaffection and ill-will against the Government of India.

"It also aimed at waging a social-cultural and economic war against India," the police claimed.

A case under section 124-A (punishment for sedition), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153 (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 120-B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) of IPC which will be investigated by the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police.

However, after early reports claimed Thunberg was to be booked by the Delhi Police, the climate

activist tweeted, "I still #StandWithFarmers and support their peaceful protest. No amount of hate, threats or violations of human rights will ever

change that. #Farmers Protest."