Contempt plea moved against BJP's Kirit Somaiya for making defamatory statements against NGO, founder

A contempt petition was filed by Earth NGO and its founder on Saturday against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former MP Kirit Somaiya at Mumbai's Sewree Metropolitan Magistrate Court for allegedly making a defamatory statement against them as soon as the court granted him bail in a case filed by the petitioner.

"Kirit Somaiya was released on bail in last hearing and right after that, he continued to make defamatory statements against Kalme and housing Minister Jitendra Awhad right outside the courtroom which is the contempt of this court's order," Pravin Kalme, the petitioner and the founder of Earth NGO said in his plea.

Earlier in October, Sewree Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Mumbai granted bail to Somaiya in connection with a case filed by Earth NGO and its founder for the alleged defamatory statements against them.

In his plea, Kalme said that Somaiya is a powerful politician who is known to have a very active Twitter fan base as well as constantly seen giving bytes and interviews to the media over very sensitive issues as well as issues that are sub-judice to the trial.

"The first thing that the accused did after being granted bail, was the accused stepped out of this great courtroom and walked before a bunch of journalists who were called by the accused himself by issuing a public statement on his Twitter page," he added.

Citing a tweet of Somaiya, the petitioner alleged that Somaiya "is not scared of this case thereby adding that law-and-order can be willingly disrespected and once bail is granted, the accused can go about committing the same offence again".

"Here in this tweet, the accused blatantly declared that he is not afraid of any such defamation cases. The exact statement of the tweet is "I am not scared about such 6 defamation cases". If this is the case, the accused has made a contemptuous statement with a clear attempt to damage the authority of the court in front of the world's media and the citizens of the world," read the plea.

"Today, each person will derive the conclusion that an individual is not afraid of Indian Law and this message is dangerous," it added.

Further, the plea alleged that "along with the tweet, the accused stepped out to the media representatives arranged by themselves".

According to the plea, Somaiya told the media persons, "There are eight-eight defamation cases that are going against me. I want to tell the Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray that I am not sacred of these cases".

The petitioner said that the "court should not allow such an act to go unpunished especially since the accused is not above the law but is trying his best to send across that exact message to society".

Kalme will also move for the cancellation of Kirit Somaiya's bail in the defamation case.

According to the petition, the application was filed on October 30 and the next hearing is scheduled for November 25.

The BJP leader was granted bail by the court on October 5 in the said defamatory case. "The Magistrate Court granted conditional bail on a personal bond of Rs 15,000. Bail can be cancelled in case of violations of the conditions," Advocate Adnan who was representing Pravin Kalme had told reporters after the Court hearing.

( With inputs from ANI )

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