A witness told a Delhi court Thursday that NBA leader Medha Patkar was the convenor of National Alliance for Peoples Movement (NAPM) which owns the website on which the alleged defamatory press note against KVIC Chairperson V K Saxena was posted.
Architect Nilesh Sachdev was deposing in a criminal defamation complaint filed against Patkar by Saxena before Metropolitan Magistrate Nishant Garg.
"It is incorrect to suggest that accused Medha Patkar is not the convenor of NAPM," Sachdev told the court during his cross-examination by the counsel for Patkar.
Patkar and Saxena, the chief of the Khadi Village and Industries Commission (KVIC), have been embroiled in a legal battle since 2000 after she filed a suit against him for publishing advertisements against her and the Narmada Bachao Andolan, with a caption 'True face of Medha Patkar and her NBA'.
Saxena was then the head of an Ahmedabad-based NGO, National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL).
Also Read
During the recording of testimony, Sachdev volunteered and said that he had "already deposed that the website narmada.org is owned by NAPM, Delhi, of which the accused was the convenor."
On questioning the witness that there was no document on record to show that accused Patkar is convenor of NAPM, he again volunteered that "I had stated that accused Medha Patkar has been convenor of NAPM."
Sachdev said that the 'urls' of the website showed that it was owned by NAPM of which Patkar was the convenor.
"Friends of River Narmada is a website on which defamatory press note was uploaded and its owner is shown as NAPM Delhi, he said.
The witness further said he never made any written query from rediff.com about the receipt of authenticity of the press note on the basis of which they allegedly published the news item.
The court has now put up the matter for further recording of evidence on November 7.
The court meanwhile adjourned the hearing in another cross-defamation case filed by Patkar against Saxena as a doctor of AIIMS, one of the witnesses, could not appear to testify.
Saxena had alleged that the the press release issued by the NBA on November 24, 2000, had contained defamatory remarks against him and through it spread the falsehood that he made donation to NGO's support group and a news item, based on it, was published on a web portal.
However, Patkar in her deposition in November last year denied issuing any kind of press release which allegedly defamed Saxena.
Saxena, in turn, had filed two cases against her for making derogatory remarks against him on a TV channel and issuing a defamatory press statement against him.
The court had earlier framed defamation charges against Patkar in a case lodged against her by Saxena in a complaint for allegedly defaming him on a TV news channel in 2006.
The court had framed the notice against the activist under sections 499/500 (defamation) of the IPC and fixed the matter for recording of Saxena's evidence.
The notice was framed in one of the defamation cases filed against Patkar by Saxena in which she had allegedly made a statement in April 2006 on a panel discussion on a news channel claiming that Saxena had received civil contracts from Gujarat-based Sardar Sarovar Nigam, which manages the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
The allegation was denied by Saxena.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
