Srinagar, Mar 22: Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar has asked social activist Madhu Kishwar to surrender before the court on the next date of hearing in the criminal defamation case filed by senior journalist and Editor-in-Chief Rising Kashmir Shujaat Bukhari.
Hearing the case and passing the order on the arguments in the application filed by her for permanent exemption, the CJM Srinagar Massarat Shaheen ordered her to be present on next date of hearing which she fixed April 3, 2017.
In her 13-page order she said “Considering the facts of the application, settled law on the point and the reasons mentioned herein above the application of the accused in allowed to the extent that she will be exempted from the personal appearance permanently after she will surrender before the court on next date of hearing, will furnish bail bonds to the satisfaction of the court and will also furnish an undertaking wherein she has to undertake that she will not dispute her identity as particular accused in the case and a counsel on her behalf would be present in the court and would have no objection in taking evidence in her absence will appear before the court personally in case her statement is need to be recorded under section 342 Cr PC at later stage”.
“Counsel for the applicant is directed to produce the accused on the next date of hearing so that her statement section under section 242 Cr PC can also be recorded” she further said adding that in case accused will fail to appear before the court then her application for permanent exemption will be treated as dismissed”.
Arguments had been made on behalf of the complainant by Advocate Syed Faisal Qadri and Advocate Vaseem Aslam during the previous hearing. Advocate Ravi Sharma had appeared on behalf of the accused.
The main complaint was filed by Bukhari seeking criminal proceedings under Sections 499 and 500 for defaming the complainant through her Tweets in July 2016 and afresh on December 2, 2016. She had levelled unfounded and malicious allegations against Bukhari, a reputed journalist and his newspaper Rising Kashmir, the compliant before the court said.
In her tweets, Kishwar had alleged that his newspaper has received funding from Indian agencies and was playing ISI script and spitting venom against India. In response to a legal notice issued in August, Kishwar had sought compromise to amicably resolve the issue but she again resorted to hateful campaign tarnishing his image. He has sought strict action under the relevant provisions of law by initiating criminal proceedings.
The court had issued bailable warrants against her on December 4 and later on it was re-issued on December 26 when the accused failed to appear in the court. (KNS)