A Mumbai court has granted Uddhav Thackeray and Sanjay Raut an additional two weeks to pay a Rs 2,000 fine, following their successful plea for condonation of delay in a defamation case. The court also imposed an extra Rs 1,000 cost on the two leaders in relation to the defamation case filed by Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) leader Rahul Shewale.
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Mumbai: Uddhav Thackeray and Sanjay Raut have been granted an additional two weeks by a Mumbai court to pay a Rs 2,000 fine related to their condonation of delay plea in a defamation case. This extension comes along with an additional Rs 1,000 cost imposed on the two leaders.
The defamation case was filed by Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) leader Rahul Shewale.
Special judge AU Kadam passed the order on Wednesday, responding to a plea by Thackeray and Raut, who sought at least two more days to pay the amount. The leaders, representing the Shiv Sena (UBT), explained that the delay in depositing the Rs 2,000 fine was unintentional and cited various reasons for the delay.
Initially, a magistrate court had rejected their discharge plea in the defamation case, leading Thackeray and Raut to file a review application in the Mumbai Sessions court. However, they missed the stipulated time limit by 84 days in filing the revision plea. On June 13, the Sessions court condoned the delay but imposed a Rs 2,000 fine on Thackeray and Raut, which was to be paid within the next two days.
The leaders missed the deadline, explaining that they received the order on June 14 and that the court’s cash counter was closed for the next two days. They claimed that they were unable to complete the necessary formalities in the following days, and officials at the cash counter later refused to accept the amount.
Advocate Chitra Salunkhe, representing Rahul Shewale, accused Thackeray and Raut of taking a “lackadaisical approach” to submitting the fine, alleging that it was a deliberate delaying tactic.
Rahul Shewale had filed the defamation case against Thackeray and Raut over articles published in 2022 in the Marathi and Hindi editions of the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’. The articles allegedly claimed that Shewale owned a hotel and real estate business in Karachi.
Shewale described the articles as “concocted” and “devoid of any merits,” calling them an example of “vendetta journalism.”
Thackeray and Raut maintained that they were falsely implicated in the case based on suspicion.
The court’s decision to grant an extension provides Thackeray and Raut additional time to fulfill the fine payment requirement, with the next steps in the legal proceedings anticipated in the coming weeks.
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