Adding a new dimension to the ongoing hearings in the defamation case against him, Maharashtra Minister and senior NCP leader Nawab Malik on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that the objective behind Dhyandev Wankhede suing him for defamation was to prevent him from revealing the illegalities of Wankhede and his NCB’s Mumbai Zonal director-son Sameer Wankhede.
In his95-page reply to the interim application in the defamation suit by Sameer Wankhede’s father Dhyandev Wankhede, Malik said that Sr Wankhede had filed the suit against him with “oblique intent” to suppress the illegalities committed by his son. “It is filed with a malafide motive to mislead the court and obtain favourable orders and in that manner restrict my fundamental rights and prevent me from revealing the illegalities committed, particularly by Sameer," Malik said in his reply.
Malik also pointed out that the defamation suit against him was "filed with oblique intent to suppress the illegalities committed by father Dhyandev and son Sameer Wankhede which, he said, had come to light in view of the evidence obtained and produced by him.
Contending none of the material published by Malik was defamatory or derogatory to the Wankhede family but it pertained to the” illegal conduct” of Wankhede, Malik said that in view of the same, no restrictions could be imposed on his freedom of speech and expression
The minister said that the defamation case against him was a “a desperate attempt to restrict his fundamental rights and obtain a gag order to restrain from revealing the illegalities conducted by Sameer Wankhede and other facts relating to raids conducted by NCB under his supervision".
Alluding Dhyandev’s charge that his allegations were in retaliation o the arrest of his son-in-law by the NCB in a drug case, Malik said that he had been speaking against the central agency’s “high-handedness” much before his son-in-law was arrested in January this year.
Producing the statements made by him against the NCB as far back as November 2020 to refute Dhyandev’s allegation, Malik said: "I had also expressed that NCB was interested in targeting celebrities to seek publicity as against their duty to track down drug traffickers".
Among other things, Malik stated that the record available showed that Wankhede was leading “dual life as a Muslim or as a Hindu” and had illegally obtained his job under the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, thereby depriving a genuine SC candidate of the opportunity to have that job.
Malik said that the mention of religion made by him was only to show how he illegally obtained a government job. He said that his “revelations” were made in the capacity of a public servant and as a spokesperson of the Nationalist Congress Party. He saidthat his criticism helped the “appropriate agency/authorities to initiate appropriate steps against the erring public servant, i.e. Sameer Wankhede”.
It may recalled Malik had on December 10, Malik had tendered an “unconditional apology” to the Bombay High Court for ‘breaching’ his undertaking to the court that he would refrain from making statements against Dhyandev Wankhede, father of NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede, and his family members.
“I tender my unconditional apology to this Honourable Court in respect of the breaches of my undertaking given to this Court as recorded in the orders dated November 25 and November 29, 2021. I had no intention to disrespect, dishonour, overreach or breach the said order,” Malik said in his affidavit filed before the HC bench of Justices S. J. Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav.
“I however believe my statement will not prevent me from commenting on the political misuse of central agencies, and the conduct of their officers in the course of performance of their official duties hereafter,” Malik had said in the affidavit.
In a Rs 1.25 crore defamation suit filed on behalf of Dnyandev Wankhede, Advocates Divakar Rai and Saurabh Tamhankar have told the court: “Defendants have caused irreparable loss, damage, harm, prejudice to the name, character, reputation and societal image of Plaintiff and his family members”.
Sr Wankhede filed the suit in the high court after Malik shared Sameer Wankhede’s purported birth certificate on his twitter handle which allegedly stated that the latter’s father was a Muslim.
The petitioner alleged that Malik had unleashed a “tirade” against his son after the NCB arrested his son-in-law Sameer Khan under NDPS in January this year.
The petitioner among other things urged the high court: to declare the statements made by Malik are "tortious and defamatory in nature", to pass permanent injection order restraining the minister from publishing or making statements in any kind of media, including his social media accounts and to delete any statements, press releases, tweets released by the NCP leader.