Court dismisses defamation case against Modi, Rajnath

A Delhi court on Monday dismissed a criminal defamation complaint filed by former Indian Police Service officer R B Sreekumar against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh and two others for allegedly launching a malicious campaign against him in connection with the 1994 Indian Space Research Organisation 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 to attend a hearing on the complaint.

"Perusal of record shows none has appeared for the complainant (Sreekumar) on the last dates of hearing. It appears that the 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, as an 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 a 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".

Giving details of the 1994 case, Sreekumar had said in his complaint that Kerala police had registered two cases in Trivandrum under various sections of the Foreigners Act, the Official Secret Act and the IPC.

Two Maldivian women -- Mariam Rashida and Fausia Hassan -- and two scientists D Sasikumaran and Nambi Narayanan were named as accused for their alleged involvement.

He had said on the official request of the DGP Kerala, the Intelligence Bureau had deputed IB officials to assist the Kerala police in the cases and a team was formed in which he was also a member.

He had said that he, along with others, were engaged in assisting the Special Investigation Team of Kerala police and he had interrogated Sasikumaran and Mariam Rashida, a female officer in the Maldivian Secret Service.

He had said that case was later transferred to the CBI, which reported to the ministry of home affairs and the government of Kerala against the approach of the Kerala police and IB officials involved in the investigation of the espionage case.

He had said that the Kerala government had rejected the proposal of the Central Bureau of Investigation for taking departmental action against Kerala police and later on, charges against him and others were dropped by the Union home ministry through its order on January 24, 2005.