A civil defamation suit has been filed in the Bombay High Court by Shiv Sena Legislator Ravindra Waikar and his wife Manisha Raikar against the former Member of Parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Kirit Somaiya seeking Rs. 100 crores as damages.
The couple has claimed that Somaiya has been constantly making ‘baseless’ allegations against them to indirectly target the leadership of Maharashtra for political gains as he is losing his presence within his political party.
“Lack of attention has force Somaiya to become an attention seeker through unlawful means at the cost of Waikar’s interest,” states the plea.
In the suit, Waikar has further claimed that Somaiya made “malicious” allegations about him not disclosing in his election affidavit the details of some property, which he allegedly purchased at Alibag, from late architect Anvay Naik, in 2014. The suit asserted that such “unsubstantiated allegations” by Somaiya have caused mental agony, and hence, Waikar sought a restraint on the BJP leader from making such statements, and to pay damages.
Waikar claims that, amid the current controversy surrounding the suicide of Naik, Somaiya has cooked up stories in order to divert focus from the actual perpetrators.
In light of this, the Waikars sought direction from the court to order damages of ₹100 crores to be paid by the defendant, and permanently restraining from in any manner maligning the reputation of the plaintiff without substantive proof through social media, press conferences and pending hearing sought an interim relief of the same nature.
