The Hindu : National : NBA: Centre given time on plea for CBI probe

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Tuesday, Feb 13, 2007
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National

National

NBA: Centre given time on plea for CBI probe

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday granted four weeks to the Centre and the States of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh on a petition for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged routing of foreign funds received by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and its other activities.

A Bench consisting of Justices C.K. Thakker and Lokeshwar Singh Panta granted time after it was brought to its notice that responses had not been filed on the petition filed by president of the National Council for Civil Liberties V.K. Saxena. After hearing senior counsel, Indra Jaising, who opposed the petition, the Bench directed listing of the matter after six weeks when the maintainability of the petition would also be taken up.

The court in July 2006 had also issued notice to the NBA, through Medha Patkar and her close associate Rahul Bannerjee. It had declined to issue notice to Ms. Patkar in her individual capacity and to the CBI observing that the CBI would come into the picture only if the court decided to order an enquiry.

In its petition, Mr. Saxena alleged that the agitations of the NBA, led by Ms. Patkar, virtually resulted in delay and suspension of several important hydel projects such as the Sardar Sarovar Project and the Maheshwar Project. The petitioner said that in spite of a final report by the police, vigilance report and hundreds of First Information Reports the authorities had not taken any action against the NBA, its members and associates, who were getting large amounts of foreign money and local funds to subvert various hydro projects in the country.

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