The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to restrain Maharashtra Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik from publishing tweets about the family of Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede.
While hearing the defamation suit filed by Wankhede's father, Dhyandev, who has sought damages to the tune of Rs 1.25 crore from Malik for allegedly making defamatory comments, the court said that it is "necessary to balance fundamental rights of Nawab Malik and Dhyandev Wankhede."
"Nawab Malik should post, comment and publish anything against the Wankhede family after 'reasonable verification of facts'," the court ruled.
Dhyandev K Wankhede has filed a police complaint against Malik under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for allegedly making false accusations regarding his family's caste.
The complaint was filed with the Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Oshiwara division in Mumbai.
"Accused Nawab Malik also in one interview with newspaper Sakal made a false and derogatory statement against myself and my family members regarding our caste. Not only that, on several occasions, while doing interaction with the print media as well as the electronic media, the said accused Nawab Malik has made derogatory statements and allegations against me and my family regarding our caste. That I have the footage/videos of said press/news events as well as concerning news articles. That I will produce the same as and when required by you while conducting the investigation of the present matter," read the written complaint to the Assistant Commissioner of Police.
"I say that you please take cognizance of my above-mentioned complaint and register FIR against the accused under Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities), Act 1989 and under sections 503, 508, 499 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and under sections 66E of the Information Technology Act, 2000," it added.
Earlier, Malik had alleged that Sameer Wankhede was born a Muslim but he forged documents, including a caste certificate, to pass off as a Scheduled Caste (SC) person to get recruitment under quota after clearing the UPSC exams.
( With inputs from ANI )
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