The Bombay High Court on Friday reserved its order in a defamation suit filed by Narcotics Control Bureau’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede’s father against Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik.
A vacation bench of Justice Madhav Jadhav heard the matter for the whole day. Dhyandeo Wankhede has sought ₹1.25 crore in damages from Mr. Malik for making defamatory statements. The plea mentions Mr. Malik posting a purported birth certificate of his son on Twitter suggesting that he is a Muslim.
The suit mentions that every day something or the other is put out by Mr. Malik on Twitter, and on Friday it was about his son’s sister-in-law.
Mr. Wankhede is seeking an injunction from the court to direct Mr. Malik to not post any defamatory or derogatory statements on social media against his family.
Mr. Wankhede filed an affidavit with 28 documents to show that his name was Dhyandeo, not Dawood as alleged by the Nationalist Congress Party leader.
‘Apps can alter images’
Referring to photos and Whatsapp chats, advocate Arshad Shaikh, appearing for Mr. Wankhede, told the court that there were apps available on Playstore that could alter images and chats. A perception was being created that Mr. Wankhede was an extortionist and because of this the family was being attacked.
Social media accounts
Senior advocate Atul Damle, representing Mr. Malik, told the court that the documents he relied upon were taken from public websites and whatever had been reposted were taken from social media accounts.
“In the suit and in the additional affidavit, Mr. Wankhede has categorically stated that he does not have the original birth certificate or the photocopy,” he said.
Mr. Malik said in his affidavit that he had sufficient evidence to prove the allegations against Sameer Wankhede.
