Sanjay Raut seeks quashing of sentence over ‘defaming’ Medha Somaiya

In the appeal, Raut said the magistrate court had not considered certain aspects, including that an article published in Saamana — the mouthpiece of Sena, which was claimed to be defamatory, was not edited or drafted by him.

In her complaint, Medha said that Raut had made statements accusing the Somaiyas of a “toilet scam” in the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation that was reported in various publications, including Saamana, causing damage to her reputation.

Raut’s appeal said that the court had overlooked his statement, which said that he had no role to play in the newspaper in terms of editing or printing. The appeal said that Raut was the executive editor and not the editor of Saamana and hence was not legally responsible for the articles published. Raut said that the court had failed to consider that he was a different entity than Saamana and there was no proof that he had written the article mentioned or given instructions for its publishing.

The appeal also said that when any public servant gives a complaint about corruption in public work, responsibility is to publish it, claiming that a town planning officer had written a letter to the municipal corporation to initiate an inquiry against Medha’s trust. Medha was asked about this during her cross-examination where she denied knowledge about it, the appeal states. It says that the magistrate was wrong in concluding that not a single question was put to the complainant about this.

The court will hear the plea on Friday.