Court asks cops to give FIR copy to Disha Ravi, allows her time with family, lawyer

New Delhi: Days after she was arrested and remanded to police custody, a Delhi court on Tuesday allowed 22-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi to have a copy of the FIR under which she has been arrested and other documents related to her arrest in the case related to the farmer protest toolkit that is being probed by the Delhi Police.

The court, notably, also allowed her to speak to her family for 15 minutes every day while in police custody and allowed her to meet her lawyer for 30 minutes every day while in police custody. The court also permitted her to get warm clothes, masks and

books.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma allowed Ravi to speak with her family members over phone for 15 minutes a day and meet with her lawyer for 30 minutes a day, while she is in police custody.

The court passed the order on an application filed by Ravi through her lawyer.

The court had on Sunday sent Ravi to five-day police custody after the agency said her custodial interrogation was required to probe an alleged larger conspiracy against the government of India and to ascertain her alleged role relating to the Khalistan

movement.

Meanwhile, the left-wing All India Students' Association staged a protest at the Delhi Police headquarters here on Tuesday against Disha's arrest and members from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi University, and Ambedkar University Delhi raised slogans for the immediate release of the activist and accused the BJP of running a "brutal anti-democracy campaign".

"The youth is the future of India. Assertive young voices like Disha make the democratic fabric of our country and BJP's all-out attack on us won't last," Prasenjeet Kumar, national working general secretary of AISA, said.

In a statement, AISA alleged that the arrest of Disha Ravi on the basis of a 'toolkit' was an "atrocious manifestation of RSS-BJP's anti-democracy agenda".

"Toolkits have been a common tool of agitation and the malicious ploy to term it an 'international conspiracy' is BJP's way of defaming the mass farmer protest," it alleged.

The protest ended with the submission of a memorandum to the Commissioner of Police raising the demand for the immediate release of Disha Ravi, along with trade union activists Nodeep Kaur and Shiv Kumar, and the "arrested farmer leaders and political prisoners".