Mumbai, Aug 11: Mumbai High Court today admitted an appeal against a lower court order which acquitted Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and two others in a defamation case.
The appeal was filed by Samajwadi Party's (SP) Maharashtra unit president and Rajya Sabha MP Abu Asim Azmi whose defamation complaint against Thackeray and others was dismissed by a magistrate earlier.
On a plea made by defence lawyer Majeed Memon, Justice s S Parkar expedited the hearing of the appeal and posted the matter for final disposal on January 12 next.
On April 16, the high court had granted special leave to the SP leader to appeal against the acquittal of Thackeray, editor of Sena mouth-piece `Saamna', the newspaper's executive editor Sanjay Raut and its publisher Subhash Desai. Azmi had sought special leave under Section 378 (4) of CRPC.
Azmi was represented by Majeed Memon and Amin Solkar while Rajendra Shirodkar argued on behalf of Thackeray. Balkrishna Joshi was the counsel for Raut and Desai.

Earlier, on May 02, 2002, additional chief metropolitan magistrate N M Gosavi had dismissed on technical grounds Azmi's defamation complaint and had acquitted Thackeray and others.

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The SP leader had filed a defamation case against Thackeray and others after the publication carried a defamatory article on July 01, 1998.

The article titled "ha Azmi kon" (who is this Azmi) had stated that the SP leader's hands were 'tainted with the blood' of victims of Mumbai bomb blast of 1992-93. The write-up said due to his money-power, Azmi had been acquitted from the blast case.
Bureau Report