Thane, Aug 17: A local court has issued non-bailable
warrants against Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and two others
in a defamation suit filed against them by a police officer.
The warrants, issued on august 14 by thane first class
judicial magistrate Nanda Jadhav, are returnable on September
27.
Besides Thackeray, who is also the editor of Shiv Sena's
mouthpiece ‘Saamna’, warrants have been issued against Subhash
Desai and Sanjay Raut, publisher and executive editor of the
newspaper, respectively.
The warrants were issued as all the three accused had
remained absent on the last three dates of the hearing.
The case has been filed by a police officer who objected
to a report published in Saamna on March 23, 1997 under the
caption ‘Khakhi Varditla Kalpanath Rai’ wherein serious
allegations were levelled against cops Jaypraksh Bodhankar and the then SP Ulhas D Joshi.
Initially, when the case came up before the court for
hearing two years ago, the trio had attended the proceedings
and were released on bail of Rs 15,000 each.
However, subsequently they remained absent in further
hearings and on last occasion their counsel was also absent.
Thereupon petitioner's Counsel Prashant Panchakshari urged the
court to issue non-bailable warrants against the accused.
In this case, Lok Sabha speaker and the then Chief
Minister of Maharashtra Manohar Joshi, the then Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde and former Director General of Police
of the state, Arvind Inamdar, have been cited as witnesses.
Bureau Report
