Thackeray will row: Raut deposes before Bombay High Court

Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP and executive editor of party mouthpiece Saamana, Sanjay Raut has deposed before the Bombay high court on Monday. In his deposition he said that as executive editor of Saamana he has all the freedom that every editor has but he used to take instructions from late Sena chief Bal Thackeray while deciding policy matters and now he takes them from the current party president Uddhav Thackeray.

He further stated he had been with Shiv Sena for the past 45 years and he spent the 25 years as the executive editor of Saamana.

Uddhav Thackeray had filed probate petition at HC to certify his father will. But Bal Thackeray’s estranged son Jaidev Thackeray, who wasn’t left anything, had challenged this will in court. The HC then turned the probate petition into a testamentary suit and started hearing. Initially, court refused to give any relief to Jaidev Thackeray who demanded a stay on selling and disposing the property till petition is pending.

Advocate Seema Sarnaik, who is representing Jaidev Thackeray, examined Mr Raut on Monday. She showed the latter a photograph, which was published in Saamana on December 3, 2011 in which Bal Thackeray was seen with Jaidev Thackeray and his family, which Mr Raut accepted as true.