Why has Medha Patkar been arrested? Know about defamation case against NBA leader

Activist Medha Patkar was arrested here on Friday after the court issued a non-bailable warrant against her in a defamation case filed by Delhi Lt Governor V.K. Saxena. She was arrested by the Delhi Police in the morning and will be produced in the court later in the day. A court here on Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Patkar over her non-appearance and non-compliance with the sentence order in connection with a decades-old defamation case filed by Delhi L-G Saxena. 

The court had observed that she was deliberately flouting its sentencing order to submit probation bonds and Rs one lakh as fine in the defamation case filed in 2001. Additional sessions judge Vishal Singh had observed that instead of appearing before the court to comply with the sentencing of April 8, the 70-year-old social activist had remained absent and deliberately failed to comply with the order to avail of the benefit of probation subject to furnishing the compensation amount.

“The intention of convict Medha Patkar is apparent that she is deliberately violating the Court order; she is avoiding to appear before the Court and also avoiding to accept the terms of the sentence passed against her,” said an order passed by Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Vishal Singh of the Saket Court.

The court said that Patkar, instead of appearing before it and complying with the sentence order, remained absent and deliberately failed to comply with the order on sentence. “The Court is left with no option but to enforce the production of convict Medha Patkar through a coercive order. Issue NBW (non-bailable warrant) against convict Medha Patkar, through the office of the Commissioner of Police, Delhi Police, for the next date,” the judge said.

Further, ASJ Singh cautioned that if the convict fails to comply with the terms of the order on sentence by the next date, then it will be constrained to reconsider the benevolent sentence and will have to alter the order on sentence. The court said that Patkar's plea for adjournment of the proceedings was frivolous and mischievous and was only calculated to hoodwink it.

On April 8, Patkar, a leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), was ordered to be released on probation of good conduct for a period of one year, subject to prior deposit of a compensation amount of Rs 1 lakh, to be released in favour of the complainant (Saxena). The appellate court had modified the order of the trial court, which had sentenced Patkar to five months of simple imprisonment, apart from ordering her to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to Saxena for the harm caused to his reputation.

The defamation case dates back to 2001, when Saxena -- then chief of the Ahmedabad-based NGO National Council for Civil Liberties -- filed two defamation suits against MeDha Patkar. One pertained to allegedly derogatory remarks she made during a television interview, while the other involved a press statement.

The legal tussle arose from an earlier suit filed by Medha Patkar in 2000, accusing Saxena of publishing defamatory advertisements targeting her and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Advocates Gajinder Kumar, Kiran Jai, Chandra Shekhar, Drishti and Somya Arya, represented Saxena, before the court.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from IANS.)