Mumbai: BJP leader Kirit Somaiya on Tuesday appeared before a magistrate court, after being summoned before it last month, in a defamation complaint filed by an NGO against him.
The former MP was taken in custody by the court and on his plea for bail, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SI Mokashi released him on a bond of Rs. 15,000.
The NGO's complaint filed through Adnan Shaikh and Amani Khan had claimed that the BJP leader had made defamatory remarks against the organization's president Pravin Kalme.
Somaiya, the complaint stated, drew parallels between Kalme and Sachin Vaze, an accused in an extortion case related to former state home minister Anil Deshmukh among other cases.
He alleged that Kalme engaged in extortion at the behest of an NCP leader and had a target to collect Rs. 1,000 crores from 100 builders. The complaint said he circulated a press note on the same and also made tweets.
Magistrate PI Mokashi had said in his order while taking cognizance of the complaint and summoning Somaiya, “Documents produced on record prima-facie reveal that accused Kirit Somaiya has spoken words and written on Twitter so that it will be read by the public at large.
It is also prima-facie proved by the words spoken by the accused Kirit Somaiya were such that it harmed the reputation of the NGO Earth." The court further said that the ingredients of the offence of criminal defamation are prima facie proved against him.
The NGO had stated in its complaint that in the course of a study it had found that developers had caused a loss to the government by violating Development Control Regulations in their projects. On the revelations of the study, it moved the Bombay High Court through a writ petition. The HC converted the petition into a PIL.
Pursuant to this, the NGO said that Slum Redevelopment Authority officials had conducted a suo moto inspection on the projects on March 31 this year. The same day, Somaiya tweeted a video containing malicious statements against it.
