Congress MLA Kripashankar Singh on Friday sent a legal notice to Bal Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena, and its mouthpiece Saamna for publishing a series of “defamatory, false and frivolous articles” with a view to “tarnishing his reputation” in view of the coming Mumbai Corporation elections.
Notices were also sent to Sena leaders Sanjay Raut and Subhash Desai, a Congress release said. An article, dated February 7, alleged financial irregularities to the tune of Rs. 100 crore in 18 of the bank accounts maintained by Mr. Singh and his family. The following day another piece said he had amassed benami property worth Rs. 350 crore. The day after that another story appeared alleging that Mr. Singh owned 18 cars and his grandson, an industrial group called ‘KGB'.
Mr. Singh threatened to initiate civil proceedings for libel claiming a compensation of Rs. 10 crore from Mr. Thackeray and to launch criminal proceedings if the newspaper failed to apologise within three days of the receipt of the notice.
When contacted, executive editor Raut told The Hindu that he had not yet received the notice. He said his newspaper stood by the stories and tendering an apology was “out of the question.”
