Court dismisses defamation plea of ex-IPS officer against Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today dismissed a criminal defamation complaint filed by former IPS officer R B Sreekumar against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Rajnath Singh and two others for allegedly launching a malicious campaign against him in connection with the 1994 ISRO spying case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain dismissed Sreekumar's complaint, saying it seems that he was "not willing" and interested in pursuing it.

The court observed this when neither Sreekumar nor his counsel appeared before it for hearing on the complaint.

"Perusal of record shows none has appeared for the complainant (Sreekumar) on the last dates of hearing... it appears that complainant is not willing or interested to pursue the complaint," the magistrate said, adding, "the application is dismissed."

The court's order came as Sreekumar and his counsel did not appear before it for the hearing despite repeated calls in the morning as well as in the post lunch session of the court.

Besides Modi and Singh, Sreekumar had also named BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi and Nambi Narayanan, a retired scientist of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), as accused in his complaint.

Earlier, Sreekumar's counsel had alleged in the court that his client was defamed by the press statement issued by Lekhi in which the former Director General of Gujarat Police was called a "traitor".

Sreekumar's counsel had claimed that the former IPS officer was "nailed" in TV interviews by BJP leaders, who gave separate statements against him, and he was even called "anti-national".

"I (Sreekumar) am specifically being named as traitor in the press statement issued by Lekhi. This is the party's statement as being the party's national spokesperson, Lekhi is speaking on behalf of the party," he had said.

In his complaint, Sreekumar had alleged that a conspiracy was hatched and on November 7 last year, Lekhi gave statements harming his reputation "by digging out an old closed case of 1994 related to espionage affecting the national interests of the country".