The Bombay High Court on Tuesday observed that Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik had “wilfully breached” his undertaking, given to the court in November, of not making any public statements against the Narcotics Control Bureau’s Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede and his family.
A Division Bench of Justices Kathawalla and Madhav Jamdar was hearing an application filed by Mr. Wankhede’s father Dhyandev claiming that, despite reassurances to the court, he [Mr. Malik] was making statements against his [Mr. Dhyandev’s] son.
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Senior advocate Birendra Saraf representing Mr. Wankhede submitted portions of Mr. Malik’s interview to a regional newspaper, alleging defamatory statements to the court.
Mr. Malik’s advocate contended that those statements were made “in his [Mr. Malik’s] individual capacity and not politically”.
The court said, “Mr. Malik is overreaching our order. Before we take any action against the respondent [Mr. Malik], we direct him to file his affidavit setting out as to why action should not be taken against him for wilful breach of statements/ undertaking.”
The matter will be heard on December 10.
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On November 29, the same Bench had directed Mr. Malik to not make any public statements or use social media against the Wankhedes.
Mr. Wankhede had filed a suit seeking damages of ₹1.25 crore from Mr. Malik for making defamatory statements. The plea mentions Mr. Malik leaked a purported birth certificate of Mr. Sameer Wankhede on Twitter, alleging that the latter is a Muslim posing as a Scheduled Caste person. The suit urged the court to direct Mr. Malik to not post any defamatory or derogatory statements and social media posts against the Wankhede family.
