Thackeray acquitted from defamation case over Saamana cartoon

A court in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district has acquitted Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in a defamation case over a cartoon about a protest march organised by members of the Maratha community in 2016. The cartoon was carried by Shiv Sena mouthpiece `Saamana', of which Thackeray, president of the party, was editor until he was sworn in as Maharashtra CM last month.

Advocate Datta Suryawanshi, the complainant, had claimed that he hadparticipated in a`MukMorcha'(silent rally) for various demands of the Maratha community (including reservations) atYavatmalin September 2016. Similar marches were conducted across the state.

The same day a three-panel cartoon was published in Saamana, which showed, among other things, a man kissing a woman, and was captioned "Muka Morcha". The cartoon appeared to have played on the similarity between Marathi words `Muk' (silent) and `Muka' (kiss).

Shiv Sena was part of the BJP-led ruling coalition in the state in 2016. Suryawanshi had also included the cartoonist, executive editor, printer and publisher as respondents.

On Wednesday, a magistrate's court at Pusad in Yavatmal district acquitted all the accused. Detailed copy of the ruling was unavailable..