Uddhav Thackeray, Sanjay Raut granted bail in defamation case by MP Rahul Shewale

The court adjourned the hearing to record the evidence of Shewale who approached court stating that defamatory articles were published about him in Sena mouthpiece Saamana, of which Raut is the chief editor and Thackeray is the executive editor. In the plea, Shewale said that the articles had appeared in December 2022, claiming that he had real estate interests in Karachi.

Shewale said that the “false accusations” were a feeble attempt to damage his reputation and political career.

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 over other 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.

In June, the court issued summons under section 500 and 501 of the Indian Penal Code related to defamation and dismissed the complaint against two unnamed news reporters mentioned in the plea.