A magistrate court Monday issued summons to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and party MP Sanjay Raut in connection with a defamation plea filed by MP Rahul Shewale of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. The court has asked the two leaders to appear before it on July 14. Shewale had approached court stating that defamatory articles were published about him in Saamna, the Sena mouthpiece, of which Raut is the chief editor and Thackeray is the executive editor. Shewale said, in the plea, that the articles had appeared in December 2022 claiming that he had real estate interests in Karachi. Shewale said that this was a feeble attempt to damage his reputation and political career by leveling false accusations against him. The complaint also said that he was given important responsibilities while he was with the Sena and after he exited to join Shinde-led Sena, he was made a “villain”. “It is extremely astonishing for the complainant (Shewale) to see the accused resorting to such ways to express their displeasure/annoyance with the complainant,” the plea states, adding that the articles show that it is “vendetta journalism”. He said that there was no verification before publishing the articles and that his wife too had approached the court with another defamation complaint in January for other defamatory articles. The articles were published in Hindi and Marathi with an intention to cause immense damage and loss of reputation to him, the plea states, seeking issuing of summons against them. The court issued summons under section 500 and 501 of the Indian Penal Code related to defamation. It also dismissed the complaint against two unnamed news reporters mentioned in the plea.
