A Delhi court acquitted social activist Medha Patkar in a criminal defamation case filed by Delhi L-G V K Saxena, citing a lack of evidence from the prosecution.
Social activist Medha Patkar was arrested in New Delhi on Friday for failing to furnish probation bonds in a 24-year-old defamation case filed by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. The arrest comes after a court granted Patkar a one-year probation in April, but she failed to comply with the order to furnish bonds.
The panel, headed by Congress MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, had called Patkar to hear her views on the implementation and effectiveness of the land acquisition law enacted by Parliament when the Congress-led UPA government was in power in 2013.
She was on an indefinite fast since February 21 to protest against the Maharashtra government's policy on slums.
They were protesting against the demolition of slums by the Brihanmumbai\nMunicipal Corporation.
The Maharashtra government has accepted five of activist Medha Patkar's demands pertaining to slum rehabilitation projects in Mumbai. But a majority of the residents of Golibar slum feel that they are victims of Patkar's agitation. N Ganesh reports
Patkar vomited on the fifth day of her indefinite fast, but refused any medical check-up when a government doctor's team met her.
Two more NBA activists - Jamsing Nargavekar and Bhagwati Patidar - who too had been on fast with Patkar, also ended their strike.
Medha Patkar was on Monday arrested when she tried to stage a demonstration outside the Secretariat in Mumbai demanding implementation of rehabilitation package for people in Maharashtra affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project.
There is no logic behind special economic zones, which destroy one form of manufacturing to promote another, says Medha Patkar.
Patkar has been on fast for the last eight days protesting the government's move to raise the height of Sardar Sarovar Dam and demanding rehabilitation for the people displaced by the project.
The fiery activist, who is crusading against demolition of slums in Mumbai, entered the conference hall at a hotel in south Mumbai when Chidambaram was about to leave to catch a flight to Delhi after delivering a speech on urban renewal.
Patkar has broken her fast after the order, one of her aides told PTI.
Bhagwatibai Patidar, who had began her fast with Patkar, continued to refuse food for the 10th day today.
In a boost to Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party in Maharashtra, social activist Medha Patkar on Monday extended her "complete" support to the fledging party.
As per the complaint, cash worth more than Rs 1.5 crore, whose audit for withdrawal and expenditure remained unclear, has been recovered during the probe.
Under the relevant law, the activist may get a jail term of two years or fine or both as the punishment.
Police have registered an offence against social activist Medha Patkar for violating orders prohibiting assembly of more than five people.
Social activist Medha Patkar's interference in a slum redevelopment scheme at Golibar slum in Mumbai's Khar (West) suburb on Monday evoked protests from the nearly 4500 families residing in 45 cooperative housing societies scheduled for redevelopment in the area.
Activist Medha Patkar, along with 200 other protestors, was detained by the Mumbai police at Santacruz in suburban Mumbai, after she blocked the Western Express Highway on Thursday morning. Traffic movement near the highway was affected by the blockade for over two hours. Patkar and local residents were protesting the demolition of several homes for a slum rehabilitation authority project in Golibar in Santacruz.
Unrelenting in her demand that work on the Sardar Sarovar Dam should be halted immediately, Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar's indefinite fast entered the eighth day Wednesday.
Patkar, talking to reporters, said that she wanted to meet the family members of Swain, but a section of locals claimed that the team of activists was there to seek feedback from them about the JSW project.
A local court in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday granted bail to social activist Medha Patkar and 17 of her supporters arrested earlier for protesting against the upcoming Pench river project in the district. She has been released from jail.
Patkar, who was accompanied by members of Association for Protection of Democratic Righs, SUCI and women rights activist Anuradha Talwar, went around the area in a large group as police personnel looked on.
Saxena, who became the Delhi LG in May 2022, is an accused, along with three others in a case of alleged attack on Patkar for opposing the Narmada dam project.
"There were CPI-M men carrying red flags who blocked my car and some other vehicles which were going along with mine to Nandigram. I was hit on the face and they tried to pull my hair and were about to drag me out of the car," Patkar told PTI over phone from the spot.
Narmada Bachao Movement leader Medha Patkar led a massive protest rally in Guwahati on Wednesday demanding shelving of dam projects in ecologically fragile and tectonically highly sensitive Northeastern region especially in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in order to safeguard interests of masses in the region.
Noted social activist Medha Patkar on Monday termed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's model of development as a "corporate model" where poor people have lost their land to big corporate houses.
As his indefinite fast against "inflated" power bills entered the 11th day, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday got the support from activists Aruna Roy and Medha Patkar, who had differences with him on various issues.
Social activist Medha Patkar called off her nine-day long fast following an assurance by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan that an inquiry would be conducted into the demolition of a slum in Mumbai. She ended her fast after Friday midnight, an associate of the veteran activist said.
Patkar, who was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, said all the activists would return to the valley tonight en route Bhopal and Indore and continue the struggle from there in order to keep up the political pressure generated on the issue.
The police, however, cited no reason for their arrest.
The NBA has received no response from the PMO after the fact-finding mission.
The court sentenced Patkar after considering the evidence before it and the fact that the case went on for over two decades.
Medha Patkar, a member of Team Anna, on Friday said there was a need for "overhauling" the group as it was facing a number of allegations and many members of the core committee were being targeted. At the same time, Patkar said she will not be attending Saturday's core committee meeting, which Anna Hazare and Justice Santosh Hegde have also decided to skip. "I don't think there is a difference of opinion," she said.
After discussions Behar offered Patkar lemon juice to end her hunger strike in support of the Sardar Sarovar Dam affected persons.
An exhausted-looking Patkar, into the fourth day of her fast-unto-death amid the rubble that was once home to scores of people, told rediff.com's Prasanna Zore that Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is insensitive to the issues of the urban poor.
In an interview with rediff.com's Sahim Salim social activist Medha Patkar said that Team Anna expected a deadlock between the Congress and BJP when the BJP took a stance on the matter.
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