Sanjay Raut pleads 'not guilty' in defamation complaint by Medha Somaiya

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday pleaded "not guilty" before a magistrate court in a defamation complaint filed by Medha Somaiya, wife of Vice President of BJP's Maharashtra unit, Kirit Somaiya..A few days after Raut appeared to cancel the bailable warrant issued against him by Metropolitan Magistrate PI Mokashi for failing to appear in the case, he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case and subsequently remanded to judicial custody.Advocate Vivekananda Gupta, on behalf of Somaiya, called for Raut's production warrant which was granted by the magistrate pursuant to which he was ordered to appear through video conference for his statement to be recorded.If the accused pleads guilty, the Magistrate can award appropriate penalty based on the seriousness of the offence and antecedents of the accused.Since Raut pleaded not guilty, the Magistrate will proceed to frame charges against him, after which the trial in the case will commence..The dispute arose when Somaiya came across an allegedly defamatory article — in Marathi newspaper 'Saamna', of which Raut is the Editor-in-Chief —accusing her of being involved in a ₹100 crore toilet scam, and a report to that effect was submitted to the Maharashtra government by Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Chahal. According to the complaint, the article allegedly said that Somaiya built unlicensed toilets by chopping mangroves without approval from the relevant environmental authorities..Somaiya claimed that Raut made baseless and completely defamatory allegations against her and her husband and requested that the court issue a notice to Raut and initiate proceedings against him for defamation under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code..The matter will be heard again on September 19.