Lawfare, Defamation – Journalists

A Srinagar court has issued a non-bailable warrant against social activist Madhu Kishwar in connection with a criminal defamation case, reported Kashmir Reader. The warrant was issued on Monday after Kishwar failed to appear for a hearing in the case.

Editor-in-Chief of Rising Kashmir Shujaat Bukhari had filed a complaint against Kishwar, accusing her of making baseless allegations and defamatory statements against the newspaper on Twitter. In July last year, Kishwar had alleged that the daily had received funding from agencies to speak in favour of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.

A legal notice was issued to the activist in August, after which she is believed to have sought an out-of-court settlement to resolve the matter. However, she had resorted to such campaigns again on December 2, 2016. The court had issued bailable warrants against her on December 4 and December 26, 2016. The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Kishwar has denied asking for an out-of-court settlement, according to InUth. “I told him [Bukhari] that if the court case goes on, a lot of murk will come out in public. I made the allegations based on some very highly placed sources,” she told the news outlet. She also alleged that the court had never sent her any summons. “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,” she claimed.