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