The Hindu : National : Defamation suit filed against Medha Patkar

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Sunday, Jul 02, 2006

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Defamation suit filed against Medha Patkar

Special Correspondent

Case filed by National Council for Civil Liberties president V. K. Saxena

AHMEDABAD: President of the National Council for Civil Liberties V. K. Saxena has filed a defamation suit against Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar in the metropolitan magistrate's court in Ahmedabad.

According to Mr. Saxena's advocate, T. S. Nanavati, magistrate A. R. Patel admitted the complaint and ordered the police to hold an inquiry and submit a report "at the earliest."

Statement on TV

The case was filed on a statement made by Ms. Patkar in a TV channel on April 20 that Mr. Saxena had issued advertisements in newspapers against her in return for getting civil contracts for the Sardar Sarovar dam.

She claimed that she had proof to substantiate the allegation, which contained in a CD and showed readiness to submit it any time.

Mr. Saxena denied the allegation in the same programme, and challenged her to submit proof. He also sent a legal notice to Ms. Patkar on April 29 to provide the true copy of the CD or to publicly apologise for the "baseless allegation."

But even after 45 days, Ms. Patkar neither submitted the CD nor withdrew her allegation against Mr Saxena.

He claimed that the failure to substantiate her statement proves that the allegations were "false and non-existent."

Case dismissed

Mr. Saxena also disagreed with Ms. Patkar's claim that a defamation case filed by her against him was still pending in the Delhi metropolitan court.

He pointed out that the case was filed jointly against him and the Editor-In-Chief of Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta, in 2000 and it was dismissed by the court on April 17, 2003.

On the contrary, he claimed, a defamation case filed by him against Ms. Patkar in 2001 was still pending in the metropolitan court, New Delhi.

Due to her continuous absence, the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Ms. Patkar on August 29 last year, following which she surrendered before the court on February 14 this year. The warrant was withdrawn by the court after imposing a penalty of Rs 5,000, Mr. Saxena claimed.

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