NEW DELHI (AP) – An Indian climate activist was arrested for releasing a document on social media that allegedly incited protesting farmers to become violent last month, leaving a protester dead and about 400 police officers injured during clashes in the Indian capital, he said the police. Sunday.
Disha Ravi, 22, was arrested in the southern city of Bengaluru and appeared in a New Delhi court on Sunday, New Delhi police said in a statement.
The court sent her into police custody for five days to assist in the investigation of “the criminal conspiracy related to the Toolkit document” that allegedly incited farmers on January 26, Republic Day of India, the police said.
Thousands of farmers stormed the New Delhi Red Fort historic complex that day, posing a major challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. Farmers demanding repeal of new agricultural laws briefly occupied the 17th century fort and raised a Sikh religious flag.
India’s Foreign Ministry has condemned “vested interest groups that try to impose its agenda” after popstar Rihanna, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and Meena Harris, niece of US Vice President Kamala Harris, tweeted her support for farmers on February 3.
The Indian government says the new laws are necessary to modernize Indian agriculture.
Farmers say the laws will benefit companies and leave them at their mercy to negotiate the prices of their crops. Tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside New Delhi since the last week of November.