Mumbai, Feb 17 A sessions court here on Tuesday reserved its order on a revision application filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut against his conviction by a magistrate in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya's wife Medha Somaiya.
Raut was present in the court as it heard the final arguments. The judge is likely to pass the order on February 23, a lawyer said.
The magistrate last year sentenced Raut, a Rajya Sabha member, to 15 days in jail in the case.
Medha Somaiya dragged the Sena (UBT) leader to court claiming that he made a baseless and completely defamatory allegations in the media against her and her husband, accusing them of being involved in a Rs 100 crore scam related to the construction of public toilets in Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation area.
During the final arguments, Raut's lawyer advocate Manoj Pingale said the articles in question did not defame anybody.
Senior advocate Laxman Kanal, representing Medha Somaiya, argued that an enquiry report had made it clear that there was no scam as alleged by the Sena (UBT) MP.
The work was assigned through tender in 2007 to five NGOs, including one linked to the Somaiyas, and there could not have been a Rs 100 crore scam as the total value of the project was Rs 22 crore, he said.
Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Aarti Kulkarni in September 2025 convicted Raut under IPC section 500 (defamation) and also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000. But the court later suspended the sentence, enabling him to challenge the order in the higher court.
