BHOPAL: Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar will have to spend more time at Dhar district jail, as the additional district and sessions judge court in Dhar denied her bail in a kidnapping case on Wednesday.
The additional district and sessions judge (ADJ-Kukshi) Praveena Vyas in Dhar district, heard Patkar’s bail applications in three cases on Wednesday.
While the court granted Patkar bail in two cases pertaining to assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty (Section 353 of IPC), it denied her bail in the case pertaining to the alleged kidnapping of revenue department staff by the NBA activists (Section 365 of IPC) on August 1.
Patkar’s lawyer Rajprakash Pahadiya told journalists later that they would now apply for bail in the kidnapping case before the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
On August 1, NBA activists had allegedly taken revenue department staff, including a Nayab Tehsildar forcefully to the venue of the indefinite fast by Patkar and others in Chikilda village of Dhar district. The activists had also allegedly snatched government files from them.
Patkar is in jail since August 9 in connection with four cases, including one case of violating prohibitory orders, two cases of assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging duty (Section 353 of IPC) and a case of kidnapping (Section 365 of IPC). She has also been booked for possible breach of peace.
On August 12, the judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) court in Kukshi-Dhar had granted Patkar bail in the case pertaining to violation of prohibitory orders but rejected bail pleas in three other criminal cases, following which her counsel had moved bail applications in the remaining three cases before the ADJ-Kukshi court.
Digvijay Singh meets Patkar at Dhar jail
Meanwhile, in a significant development, Congress national general secretary and former MP chief minister Digvijay Singh along with wife Amrita Rai and local party leaders, met NBA leader Medha Patkar at the Dhar district jail for around 20 minutes on Wednesday.
Dubbing Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as insensitive, the former CM alleged that Patkar and other activists peacefully agitating for the cause of dam displaced families have been framed up in false cases.
The FIRs in the cases in which Patkar has been arrested don’t even bear her name, but still, warrant was issued against her.
“She has been arrested for alleged kidnapping of government staff, despite the concerned government official telling the Dhar district collector over the phone that he wasn’t kidnapped,” alleged Singh.