Minister Bhuse withdraws defamation suit against Raut

Nashik: Education minister Dada Bhuse on Saturday withdrew the defamation suit filed by him in the Malegaon court against Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut over Raut's earlier claim that Bhuse and his colleagues had raised Rs 178 crore under the pretext of rejuvenation of the Girna cooperative sugar factory in Malegaon, and that nobody knew where the funds were.Bhuse and Raut were both present in the court in Malegaon on Saturday.After the hearing, both addressed reporters jointly, where Bhuse said he had withdrawn the defamation suit after Raut stated in court that he was misled."Today, Raut admitted in the court that he was misled by the information. The amount collected for the factory was Rs 1.7 crore and not Rs 170 crore as claimed. Besides, the entire amount," said Bhuse.The issue dated back to 2023, when a newsalleged misappropriation of funds collected from farmers and others to restart the cooperative sugar factory."After that news report, the farmers and Malegaon residents felt offended and asked Raut to withdraw the statement. Since that did not happen, the defamation suit was filed. Today, Raut apologised to the farmers and, therefore, we have also withdrawn the application," said Bhuse.Raut addressed Bhuse as "guardian minister" and said he was misled by Advay Hiray. "I was misled on the facts by Hiray. Since it was the issue raised by Hiray and the facts were incorrect, I decided to withdraw, and let Hiray fight his own battle," said Raut.He also said Hiray is now with BJP, whose functionaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were on record saying, ‘Na Khaunga Na Khane Dunga'. "Let's see what happens now," he added.