Arrest warrant against Medha by Ahmedabad court

via National Council for Civil Liberties - www.ncclindia.org published on February 27, 2009

Ahmedabad, Feb 27, City Metropolitan Magistrate RG Chaudhary today issued bailable warrant once again to Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Andolan in a defamation case filed by VK Saxena, president,  National Council for Civil Liberties, Ahmedabad, an NGO which  is up in arms against Patkar for her obstructionist role in Sardar  Sarovar Project (SSP) which is lifeline of Gujarat.

Earlier on January 27 the same court had issued a warrant against  Patkar after she failed to appear even after four opportunities were  given to her. The court had directed Police Inspector Badwani, Madhya  Pradesh, to arrest her and bring her before the court on February 27.
 
Police Inspector Badwani in his report to the court had mentioned that  a police team visited Patkar’s place on February 18 and she could not  be traced. Police recorded the statement of her staff  Kailash  Aksia and Vinod Bhargav who claimed that “Medha is not residing here
 and they are not aware where she is residing these days.”

 Saxena’s advocate Kiran Agarwal pleaded that Medha is a habitual  offender and there are several instances where she ignored court  summons & orders where she herself was a complainant in many criminal  cases.
 
Citing several cases, Saxena pointed out that Medha had filed a case  against Jamuna Devi, former deputy chief minister of Madhya Pradesh . She had also filed acriminal case against late Chhabildas Mehta, former chief minister of  Gujarat. Even a case filed against Saxena himself and against Editor  of Gujarat Samachar were all “dismissed in default” as the  she failed to pursue the cases despite several court notices.
 
The magistrate Chaudhary after hearing the advocate of Saxena in the  absence of Medha and her advocate ordered this time to the  Superintendent of Police, Badwani to arrest her and produce before the court on March 16.
 
The Controversy began when Patkar in an interview to India TV, telecast on April 20, 2006 captioned “Breaking News” said “Mr Saxena  is getting civil contracts from Sardar Sarovar Nigam. I am ready to  prove this anytime”. Saxena immediately denied all allegations in the  same programme and challenged her to provide evidence.

Saxena then sent a legal notice to Patkar on April 29, 2006 and called upon her to prove her allegations. Patkar failed to provide any evidence.

Saxena then filed a defamation case against Patkar on June 29, 2006 in this court.The Court found prima facie case against Patkar and passed a detailed order for summoning her on August 14 of last year. The Court said “the evidence collected by the IO from the government is attached.Nothing is found from this evidence that government had given contracts for the construction of Narmada Dam to the complainant.

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