Shantanu Muluk’s father said that two persons claiming to be Delhi police officer seized a hard disk and other items from his house without a search warrant on February 12. Shantanu is a green activist from Pune who is a suspect in the “toolkit” document case relating to farmers' protest.
Beed superintendent of police Raja Ramaswami said that Shantanu's father Shivlal Muluk, 54, made a representation to the police as a "responsible citizen" on Tuesday and urged the SP to take appropriate action regarding the 'search' conducted at his house, an official said.
On Tuesday, the Bombay High Court granted transit anticipatory bail to Shantanu Muluk for 10 days.
Shantanu’s family stated the two duos said they are from Delhi police and their son has committed treason against the country. They searched all rooms in the house and took away a hard disk, an environment-related poster, a book, and a mobile phone cover from Shantanu Muluk's room, Muluk’s father stated in a letter to the SP of Beed.
The police officials showed no search warrant and did not take the family’s permission before taking away the items, Shivlal Muluk said in the letter.
The police officials also didn't prepare any 'panchnama' of the seized material, it stated.
Shivlal Muluk also claimed that the visiting police team had asked him to come to the government guest house in Beed for questioning and that all the items confiscated will be returned. Shantanu is innocent, his family claimed.
His cousin Sachin Muluk is the Zilla Pramukh of the Shiv Sena in Beed, told the media that Shantanu is an environmentalist and was supporting farmers agitation. “If it is a crime to back stir and fight for farmers, then it displays the dictatorial nature of the government.
This is an attempt to stifle dissent. The farmers and people must thwart this attempt. It is important to think about how the future of the youth is being spoiled."
Shantanu Muluk, Nikita Jacob and Disha Ravi are accused of conspiring against the government and said to have created and edited the 'toolkit' document relating to farmers' protest. The toolkit was tweeted by Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg, currently under Delhi Police investigation. The toolkit had references such as various urgent actions, including creating a Twitter storm and protesting outside Indian embassies, were reportedly listed which needed to be taken to support the farmers' protest. However, all these accused have claimed that they were supporting the farmers.