Bombay HC to hear defamation case against Nawab Malik today

Mumbai, Nov 12: The Bombay high court will on Friday hear out the defamation suit filed by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede's father, Dhyandev, against Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik in connection with drugs-on-cruise case.

Dhyandev Wankhede, in his suit, has sought damages to the tune of Rs 1.25 crore from Malik for allegedly making defamatory comments against his son Sameer Wankhede and family through press conferences and via social media.

The suit has sought an order declaring Malik's statements as defamatory in nature and a permanent injunction restraining the NCP leader from publishing or making statements before the media, including his social media accounts.

The suit stated that the statements by Malik that Wankhede is a Muslim amounted to questioning the religious beliefs of the family by disputing that they are not Hindus.

It claimed that Malik's statements caused an irreparable loss, damage, harm, prejudice to the name, character, reputation and societal image of Wankhede and his family.

The suit also sought directions to Malik to take back all defamatory statements made by him so far and also to delete all his tweets posted against the plaintiff and his family members.

Sameer Wankhede had last month led a raid on a cruise ship and the NCB claimed to have seized drugs onboard.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and 19 others were later arrested in connection with the cruise drugs case.

Malik has repeatedly termed the cruise drugs case as "fake" and levelled a string of allegations against the NCB officer.