Ahmedabad court refuses to stay trial: What is the assault case against Delhi L-G

On April 7, 2002, violence broke out at Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Ashram, home to the apostle of peace Mahatma Gandhi. Two peace meetings — one by celebrated danseuse Mallika Sarabhai and another by the late Gandhian Chunibhai Vaidya — had been convened in the ashram that day in the wake of the communal riots that had recently swept the state.

When news spread that activist Medha Patkar would be present at the ashram, those who opposed her work in the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) rushed to the site and allegedly attacked her. A police party, headed by then Deputy Commissioner of Police VM Pargi, tried to rescue Patkar and control the crowd, and lathicharge ensued.

Among those allegedly in the attacking party were leaders of BJP and associated wings, Congress, and now New Delhi L-G Saxena, then the president of his NGO, National Council for Civil Liberties.

Pargi, who retired as Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), said he was called by his then boss, Additional Commissioner of Police (2002) Shivanand Jha, to bring the situation under control, although the area was not under his jurisdiction. Sarabhai, as one of the organisers, had also become a target of the mob that assaulted Patkar.

“My task was to take Medha Patkar to a safe place and control the crowd, which also had journalists, photographers, policemen and politicians,” Pargi told The Indian Express. “Had we not acted, there would have been bloodshed that day,” he said.

‘Had not invited Medha’

Recollecting the events of that day, Ahmedabad-based activist Prakash Shah told The Indian Express, “We don’t know how but some people came to know that Medha Patkar would be participating in the meeting, and soon, a mob attacked. We saw Medha being attacked brutally, including by Amit Thaker [then BJP youth wing national general secretary]. Anything could have happened. Eventually, the police took Medha out from the backdoor and I believe she was taken to the airport.”

Sarabhai told The Indian Express that she had been afraid Patkar’s presence would sideline the meeting’s agenda, and had hence not invited her, saying:

“I had wanted anyone interested in peace to gather and speak of a long-term strategy for rebuilding Gujarat and Ahmedabad. I had not invited Medha only because I was aware of the hatred that had been engineered against her in the name of the Narmada dam… On the morning of the meeting I was told by (late) Digant Oza (activist, journalist) that Medha had come. I told him to tell her not to come because the agenda would be hijacked and I only wanted us to talk about future peacebuilding actions. At the meeting, there were people from all over. Gujarati Muslim leaders had come out for the first time post the violence. The meeting was going well when during the lunchbreak Medha arrived. I went and asked her to leave fearing that her presence could sideline the peace agenda. Within minutes a mob came into the ashram, violent and threatening and shouting anti-Medha slogans.”

She said, “one man grabbed Medha’s hair and banged her head against a wall.”

“Before they turned to me, a colleague dragged me to his scooter and we drove to the river bank and got to Darpana (the school of performing arts she runs),” Sarabhai said.

Alleged role of L-G Saxena

Later, two FIRs were filed over the incident, one with Pargi as the complainant on behalf of the state and another by Patkar.

Both FIRs were for the offences of unlawful assembly, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation under IPC sections. Among the accused named in both the FIRs were Saxena, now Gujarat BJP MLAs Amit Popatlal Shah (then BJP councillor of AMC) and Amit Thaker, and Congress leader Rohit Patel.

Shah and Thaker won the Ellisbridge and Vejalpur seats respectively in the December 2022 Assembly elections, becoming first-time MLAs.

“The FIR by the government was later withdrawn and the trial that is going on is on the second FIR by Patkar,” said Pargi.

In the same year, a committee headed by retired Justice Suhrud Deoprasad Dave of the Gujarat High Court was set up to inquire into the Sabarmati Ashram violence. In the report submitted, among those indicted was Pargi. Pargi remembered getting an “advisory” from the government warning him to “be careful in future”.

Both Shah and Sarabhai said they had deposed before the Committee along with others.

The case was committed for trial only in 2005 before an Ahmedabad magistrate court, three years after the incident. Summons were issued to the accused in 2013, after a delay of another eight years. Cross examination of three of the accused had been completed when Saxena moved a plea in March this year seeking abeyance of trial against him till he holds the office of New Delhi L-G.

Old conflict between Saxena and Patkar

In 1991, Saxena founded an NGO called the National Council for Civil Liberties, which opposed Patkar on the Narmada dam issue. At the time, Patkar was one of the chief and most vocal opponents of the Sardar Sarovar Project being pushed by then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi’s government. The two have been embroiled in multiple legal battles against each other since 2000.

Patkar had filed a defamation suit against Saxena for publishing advertisements against her and NBA. Saxena, in turn, had filed similar suits alleging defamation by Patkar in TV interviews. An out-of-court settlement or a compromise was suggested by a Delhi court in the defamation cases, but had refused to settle, and the trial is on. Saxena had offered to settle only if Patkar withdrew the case of assault on her pending trial in Ahmedabad.