Nikita Jacob is an Indian lawyer by profession, practicing in the Bombay High Court. Apart from this, she is also a human rights and environmental activist. Nikita was in the news in February 2021 when the Delhi Police mentioned her in the FIR in the Greta Thunberg toolkit conspiracy case. She was accused of editing and authoring the toolkit released by Greta Thunberg on February 4, 2021.
Wiki/Biography
Nikita Jacob was born in 1991 (30 years old in 2021) in Mumbai, Maharashtra. She completed her high school education from St. Joseph’s Convent School, Panchgani in 2006 and her secondary education from St. Xavier’s Junior College, Mumbai. Thereafter, she pursued Bachelor of Science in Social Law (BSL LL.B) from ILS Law School, Pune and completed the course in 2013.
Profession
Legal
Nikita interned in various law firms while pursuing her five-year law degree. After obtaining her degree, she was admitted to the Maharashtra and Goa Bars in 2013. In 2015, she was registered with the Bombay High Court. Over the years, she has worked in various law firms, including SK Legal Associates (Mumbai) from April 2015 to November 2016, Tatva Legal (Mumbai) from November 2016 to April 2017, and under Advocate Girish Godbole from August 2017 to November 2020.
Activism
Nikita has been inclined towards activism since her college days, when she was part of a human rights group. During college, Nikita worked as a volunteer teacher for the NGO Make A Difference for more than two years (2008-2010). Over the years, she has been associated with several welfare organizations. In 2018, she became a volunteer for Extinction Rebellion (XR), a global environmental movement.
Toolkit
On February 4, 2021, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg expressed solidarity with Indian farmers protesting against three agricultural laws introduced by the Indian government in September 2020. Greta also shared a document called a toolkit on her Twitter account so that people can better understand and analyze the farmers’ protests and gain their support.
If you want to help, here is an updated toolkit from the local people in India. (They deleted the previous document because it was outdated.)#StandWithTheFarmers #farmersprotesthttps://t.co/ZGEcMwHUNL
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) February 3, 2021
According to the Delhi Police, the toolkit was created by a pro-Khalistani group in collaboration with some activists in India. The police said the toolkit was part of an international conspiracy against India and was used to incite violence in Delhi on January 26, 2021. In connection with the toolkit case, the Delhi Police arrested several people including Nikita Jacob, Disha Ravi (a young environmental activist) and Shantanu (a Bengaluru-based engineer). The three, including Nikita (who is accused of editing and creating the toolkit), were charged under Sections 124(A) (sedition), 153(A) (promoting enmity between groups) and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. On February 11, 2021, a Delhi Police cyber cell raided Nikita’s residence in Mumbai. During interrogation by the Delhi Police, Nikita spoke about the toolkit and said:
The information contained in the toolkit does not in any way incite rioting or violence, but is simply a package of information from a variety of sources… There are no weapons, no violence, and no mention of anything to do with violence in the toolkit or any of our communications.”
She also said that the act of producing information kits for the ongoing protests is “natural and completely legal in a democracy like ours with a strong constitutional protection”. On February 15, the Delhi Police issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Nikita Jacob. Therefore, Nikita approached the Bombay High Court for relief. On February 16, 2021, Justice Vibha Kankanwadi granted her three-week transit anticipatory bail in the case.
Facts/Trivia
- Jacob is the first generation of lawyers in her family.
- As an advocate, Nikita has a keen interest in reading, writing, research, logic and analysis. She also has strong extracurricular interests in art, media, music and sports. She has participated in various sports competitions during her school and college years.
- She is multilingual and speaks fluent English, Hindi and Malayalam and has a basic level of French.
- In April 2020, during the nationwide lockdown in India due to the coronavirus pandemic, Hindustan Times in partnership with Juggernaut Books launched the “One Story, One Nation” campaign to encourage people to read. HT shared videos of celebrities and common people reading excerpts from Rabindranath Tagore’s book Kabulwalla. Below is a video uploaded by Nikita Jacob on the Hindustan Times YouTube page, in which she reads a short excerpt from Kabulwalla.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education