A Metropolitan Magistrate PI Mokashi in Mazgaon on Monday issued a bailable warrant against senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut after the Rajya Sabha MP failed to appear before the court on a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by Medha Somaiya, the wife of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya.
Medha, the wife of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya, filed the complaint against Raut for allegedly making statements claiming that she was involved in a ₹100-crore fraud.
The Metropolitan Court had ordered Raut to appear before it on July 4 last month after finding that he had made allegations of defamation against Medha Somaiya on the surface. Somaiya complained that Raut had falsely implicated her and her husband in a scam involving the building and upkeep of some public restrooms under the control of the Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation.
She also claimed that Raut had made completely false and defamatory claims about them.
Following Raut’s complaint, the court issued a process against her on June 10. The court noted that the documents and video clips the complainant provided prima facie show that defamatory statements were made against her on April 15 and April 16 of 2022. The court continued, “Prima facie, Sanjay Raut had harmed the complainant’s reputation.”
She claimed that in addition to the article, Raut also provided interviews to electronic media, and she repeated the claims the following day, on April 15. She provided the court with video evidence of Raut’s bites to support her claims.
The complainant, who has held positions as a professor of organic chemistry and been connected to prestigious organisations like the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, claimed that the allegations were widely reported by top news channels and were only made with the intention of damaging her reputation (TISS).