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Patkar attack video was to malign me: Delhi L-G

Without naming AAP, Saxena alleged that there is an 'undisputed nexus' between Patkar and the ruling party of Delhi
Last Updated 13 April 2023, 02:15 IST

About a month after AAP attacked him over a 2002 video footage of the assault on Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar, Delhi L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena said the video “is part of a sub-judice court record” which was accessed without proper procedure at the instance of the social activist to “malign” his image.

Without naming AAP, Saxena alleged that there is an “undisputed nexus” between Patkar and the ruling party of Delhi. He said “access (to the video) without following due process to the records of present trial by a third party and making it public appears to be at the instance of the complainant (Patkar) only to malign the image of L-G of NCT of New Delhi as Accused No 4.”

Last month, Saxena filed an application seeking immunity from criminal trial till he continues to occupy his current position. He has requested the court to keep the trial against him in abeyance.

Patkar has moved her objection against Saxena's plea and requested the court that she should be heard before any decision is passed by the court. Saxena has opposed Patkar's move saying that his objections are "against the vindictive conduct of the complainant (Patkar) side for giving political mode to create a mass prejudice by which cause of justice appears to have been frustrated at the instance of complainant/victim."

Saxena is one of the four people who are accused of assaulting Patkar in 2002 at the Sabarmati Ashram where scores of civil rights activists and journalists had gathered appealing for peace in the wake of post-Godhra riots. Saxena and three others - BJP MLAs Amit P Shah and Amit D Thaker and Congress leader Rohit N Patel - were booked for unlawful assembly, assault, wrongful restraint, and criminal intimidation, among other charges.

Last month, AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh held a press conference in Delhi where he showed the video footage of the alleged attack. Singh alleged that Saxena had incited and led the mob which attacked Patkar. The press conference was another instance of a tussle between the AAP government and the L-G office.

Saxena has said in the affidavit that in 2013, Patkar produced "some DVD" in the court which was never played in the court. "It is surprising that the said so-called video of sub-judice matter of present rial, was again supplied to the same political party for vindictive motive to imprint mass prejudice against the entire trial more precisely the accused N0-4 who is LG of NCT of New Delhi..." He claimed that the video is a "manipulated and tampered one."

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(Published 12 April 2023, 18:41 IST)

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