Court Refuses to Discharge Uddhav, Raut in Defamation Case Filed by MP

Mumbai: A magistrate court in Mumbai on Thursday rejected the discharge plea filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and MP Sanjay Raut in the defamation case filed by MP Rahul Shewale. In the defamation case, Articles appeared on December 29, 2022 in the Marathi and Hindi editions of Saamana had claimed that Mr. Shewale had business interests in Karachi, Pakistan.

While Mr. Thackeray is the Chief Editor, Mr. Raut is the Executive Editor of Saamana. Additional metropolitan magistrate S.B. Kale refused to discharge the two.

Mr. Shewale is an MP from Mumbai south-central constituency. He is one of the 13 Shiv Sena MPs who have joined the Eknath Shinde faction. In the complaint, he has alleged that the article from December 29, 2022 wrongly stated he had a real estate business in Karachi. The articles were a “concocted story”, “devoid of any merits” and a classic example of “vendetta journalism”, he has claimed in the complaint.

In their discharge plea, Mr. Thackeray and Mr. Raut maintained their innocence and asserted that they have been falsely accused assuming they had a direct say in Saamana.

The two contended that the case was filed presuming they controlled the matter selected for publication. However, it was assistant editor Atul Joshi who oversaw the selection process.