Medha Patkar arrested on her way to Dhar, sent to jail

Bhopal: Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar was arrested on Thursday when she was on her way to Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh to meet the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) oustees, the police said.

“We have arrested her as she insisted on going back to meet the oustees. We have told her that it is not possible to allow her to go to Dhar as section 144, CrPc has been imposed in the area,” Ajay Sharma, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Indore range, said.

The police stopped Patkar and informed her that she could not proceed to Dhar, but as she refused to relent, she was placed under arrest at the border of Indore and Dhar districts, and subsequently, taken to Dhar, he added.

“We will ask her to furnish a bond stating that section 144 will not be violated. If she furnishes it, we will release her,” the ADGP said.

Subsequently, Patkar was produced before a sub-divisional judicial magistrate at Dhar who sent her to jail.

Patkar (62) and 11 others were forcibly removed from Chikhalda in Dhar on August 7, where they were staging an indefinite fast demanding a proper rehabilitation of the oustees, and were admitted in different hospitals.

Earlier in the day, Patkar was discharged from a private hospital in Indore after her condition improved.

After she was discharged from the Bombay Hospital, Patkar said her indefinite fast would continue.

Patkar (62) and the other activists have been fasting for 14 days.

“Medicines were administered through drips to the fasting agitators in various hospitals but none of us has eaten food so far. We demand the oustees be allowed to stay in their original dwellings till proper arrangements are made for their rehabilitation,” Patkar, who came out of the hospital on a wheelchair, told reporters.

She claimed that the process of rehabilitation of the displaced people in the Narmada valley was yet to be completed.

Patkar said a special leave petition (SLP) came up before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, but it was dismissed as a related case was pending before the Madhya Pradesh High Court.