Nawab Malik undertakes not to comment on Sameer Wankhede & kin until December 9

In a major win for Sameer Wankhede and his family, Nawab Malik's lawyer gave an undertaking to the Bombay High Court not to make statements against them until the next date of hearing i.e December 9. A division bench of the HC comprising Justices SJ Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav was hearing Dnyandev Wankhede's plea challenging the order of the single bench that had refused to pass an injunction on the Maharashtra Minister. Slamming Malik for allegedly seeking publicity, the division bench questioned whether his comments befitted his stature as a Minister. 

In his defamation suit, Dnyandev Wankhede had alleged that Nawab Malik started making allegations against the NCB Mumbai Zonal Director after the former's son-in-law Sameer Khan was arrested by the central agency in a drugs case. Besides seeking damages to the tune of Rs.1.25 crore, he had requested the HC to order the deletion of the defamatory material and restrain the NCP leader from making such comments. On Monday, Justice Madhav Jamdar had directed Malik to conduct "reasonable verification" of facts before publishing or speaking anything which amounts to defamation of the Wankhede family.

Nawab Malik's charges against Sameer Wankhede

On October 25, Nawab Malik alleged that Sameer Wankhede corrected his father's name and used a fake caste certificate to become an Indian Revenue Service officer via the reserved category snatching away the rights of genuine Dalits. He stated that several Dalit organizations would formally challenge the validity of Wankhede's caste certificate and asserted that the latter faces a jail term of 2-7 years if found guilty. Clarifying that he harbours no ill-will against the NCB, he claimed that Wankhede registers "fake cases"  in order to extort money from people.

Moreover, he alleged that the NCB Mumbai Zonal Director is tapping phones via two private persons. The Maharashtra Minister also stated that he had received a letter sent by an unnamed official of the NCB who cited instances of 26 "fake cases" allegedly registered by Wankhede. It is pertinent to note that Dnyandev Wankhede has already filed a police complaint demanding Malik be booked under Section 3 (punishments for offences of atrocities) of the SC/ST Act, Sections 499 (defamation), 503 (criminal intimidation) and 508 of the IPC and Section 66E (punishment for violation of privacy) of the IT Act.