Bharadwaj’s plea for NIA to withdraw 'defamatory' remark ‘not maintainable’, says court

In a detailed order, a special NIA court which rejected on 12 February an application by Bhima-Koregaon accused activist Sudha Bharadwaj seeking that the NIA withdraw its ‘defamatory’ remarks against her, has said that her plea is ‘not maintainable’ as there is no such provision under the Criminal Procedure Code. The prosecution had objected to her application in a reply to it. Special judge Dinesh E. Kothalikar noted in his order that the court made a query with Bharadwaj’s advocate if such a plea is maintainable. To this, it said, the advocate fairly conceded that though such a provision is incorporated in the Code of Civil Procedure, it does not find a mention in the Criminal Procedure Code. -