15 hours ago
- Copy link
Delhi Police arrested Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar on Friday morning. However, the court released Medha Patkar in the afternoon on the condition of presenting the probation bonds and depositing the compensation amount.
Medha Patkar was arrested from Nizamuddin in Delhi. The court issued a non -bailable warrant (NBW) against Medha. This action has been taken in the defamation petition filed by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena.
Saket court issued a non -bailable warrant against Medha Patkar on 23 April. The court directed Patkar to deposit probation bonds and a fine of one lakh rupees. Patkar neither attended herself nor deposited the fine amount in the hearing.
Medha Patkar comes out after release from Delhi’s Saket court
Understand the whole matter
This case is of the year 2000. Patkar commented on Saxena. He allegedly called Saxena a ‘coward’ and alleged that he was involved in hawala transactions.
The current Lieutenant Governor of Delhi was at that time leading an NGO in Gujarat. Saxena’s NGO openly supported the Sardar Sarovar project of the Gujarat government, while the NBA was running a movement against it.
However, in a press release issued on 25 November 2000, Patkar alleged that Saxena was secretly supporting the NBA protests against the Gujarat government’s project. He further claimed that Saxena had sent a check to NBA, which bounced.
In May last year, the Magistrate Court found that Patkar’s remarks were derogatory and convicted the worker and sentenced him to three months in jail. The court also ordered him to give compensation of Rs 10 lakh to VK Saxena.
Supreme Court transferred the case to Delhi
VK Saxena filed a criminal defamation case against Medha Patkar in the Ahmedabad court in 2001. The trial court of Gujarat took cognizance of the matter. Later in 2003, the Supreme Court transferred the hearing of the case from Gujarat to Saket Court in Delhi. In 2011, Medha called himself innocent and talked about facing the trial. When VK Saxena filed a case in Ahmedabad, he was the President of the National Council for Civil Liberty.
Who is activist Medha Patkar
Medha Patkar is a social worker, who works on some political and social issues raised by tribals, Dalits, farmers, laborers and women in the country. He is mainly known for working with displaced people from the Narmada Valley Development Project (NVDP). NVDP is a massive plan to build dams on the Narmada River and its tributaries in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.