New Delhi, April 25
Offering relief to activist Medha Patkar, a Delhi court on Friday ordered her release on furnishing a Probation Bond and payment of Rs one lakh compensation in a defamation case filed in 2001 by Delhi Lt Governor V.K. Saxena. The order came within hours of her arrest at a city railway station.
In a related development, Patkar withdrew her plea from the Delhi High Court against the orders of lower courts.
A subordinate court ordered her release within hours of being arrested on her arrival at a Delhi railway station at 6 a.m. for being presented before a judge in the Saket district court complex.
She was arrested to execute a non-bailable warrant (NDW) issued against her in the defamation case. 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.
The Delhi court had on Wednesday issued an NBW against Patkar over her non-appearance and non-compliance with the sentence order in connection with the 2001 defamation case linked to developments in Ahmedabad, where Saxena headed an organisation called National Council of Civil Liberties.
In 2001, Saxena filed two defamation suits against Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Patkar. One pertained to allegedly derogatory remarks she made during a television interview, while the other involved a press statement.