Dhyandev Kachruji Wankhede, the father of NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede, has filed a defamation complaint against Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik in the Bombay High Court, seeking Rs 1.25 crore in damages. On Monday, the top court is expected to hear the petition for interim relief, which includes the deletion of articles, tweets, and interviews, as well as a temporary order prohibiting respondents from publishing, writing, or speaking in any medium.
Advocates Arshad Shaikh, Ranjit Agashe, Krishnan Iyer, Vinsha Acharya, Divakar Rai, and Saurabh Tamhankar presented the appeal for urgent hearing on Friday before a vacation bench of Justice S J Kathawalla, who adjourned the case until Monday to hear prayers for interim relief.
Last month, the NCB zonal director made a statement clarifying that his father is Hindu and his mother is Muslim, after Maharashtra minister and NCP politician Nawab Malik published a birth certificate supposedly of Sameer Wankhede, saying that his father is one Dawood Wankhede.
The entire onslaught against Dhyandev Wankhede began only after Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan was arrested by NCB in January this year under the NDPS Act for allegedly dealing contraband, according to Wankhede’s plea.
Wankhede’s father claims that Malik and his family members’ remarks, insinuations/imputations made orally or in writing, through press releases and interviews, are ‘tortious and defamatory,’ according to the plea. Plaintiff and his family members have suffered “irreparable loss, damage, harm, and prejudice to their name, character, reputation, and society image,” according to the lawsuit.
Malik has been calling Wankhede’s family “frauds” and “questioning their religious convictions,” according to Wankhede’s lawyers, as well as damaging the practise of his daughter Yasmeen, who is a criminal lawyer who does not appear in narcotics cases.
The defamation claim sought a permanent injunction prohibiting Malik, his party members, and anybody acting under or on his orders from posting any defamatory content or material regarding the plaintiff and his family members in any way.
The plea also asked for the removal of articles, tweets, interviews, and press releases from any media, including electronic and social media, as well as a temporary injunction prohibiting or restraining defendants “from publishing, writing, and speaking in any media,” a material defamatory to the plaintiff or his family members, pending the hearing and final disposition of the suit.
The lawsuit asked the court to order Malik to pay the plaintiff Rs. 1.25 crore in damages for allegedly defamatory and disparaging tweets, interviews, and press releases published in any form of media.
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