Social activist and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s staunch supporter Madhu Kishwar has got a non-bailable warrant from a Srinagar court today. The warrant is related to a criminal defamation case filed by Rising Kashmir editor-in-chief Shujaat Bukhari against Kishwar. According to Rising Kashmir, the complaint was filed last year following Kishwar’s ‘defamatory’ tweets in July and December 2016. In her tweets, she accused Bukhari of taking money from Indian agencies while presenting ISI (Pakistan’s intelligence agency) scripted stories and “spewing venom against India”. Rising Kashmir also alleged that Kishwar wanted an amicable out-of-court settlement in the case. However, she further allegedly aggravated the matter again with her tweets later in December.
Kishwar denied that she had reached out for an out-of-court settlement. Speaking to InUth, she said: “I told him if the court case goes, a lot of murk will come out in public. I made the allegations based on some very highly placed sources. I am not a criminal. We will appeal against the Court order. The Court’s decision is biased. No one can be sent a bailable or a non-bailable warrant. I was not sent any summons but a warrant at the very beginning.”
Kishwar had a problem with the way Hizbul militant Burhan Wani was presented as a “martyr” by the newspaper. “Report all the human rights violation. But you cannot present a militant like a martyr,” she said. On being asked, if she had any concrete evidence to prove the grave charges, she put the onus of proving his innocence on Bukhari. “Let him prove that he is innocent,” she said.
Bukhari said, “I cannot comment on her charges against the judiciary as it is a matter between her and the judge. But her tweets were indeed defamatory. We had to seek legal remedy and we have faith that justice will be done.”
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