Bombay HC Directs Police To Take Atrocities Act Case Against NCP Leader Nawab Malik To 'Logical Conclusion'

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the police to complete its probe into the case lodged by former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) against NCP leader Nawab Malik under the Atrocities Act in 2022. The court has asked the police to take the probe to its “logical conclusion”.

The police informed a bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and S G Dige that they have added two more sections in the case – section 3(1) q and r of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The sections pertain to giving false or frivolous information to any public servant to cause injury or annoyance and to intentionally insult or intimidate a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.

The probe shall be completed within four weeks, the police assured the bench. The bench accepted the police’s assurance and kept the matter for further hearing on January 16, 2025. “The FIR is of 2022. We are not putting any pressure. But it needs to be taken to its logical conclusion,” the court said.

Wankhede, the additional commissioner in the Directorate General of Taxpayer Services (DGTS) and a member of the Mahar Scheduled Caste, last month, approached the HC seeking the case to be transferred to the CBI or monitored by the court, alleging inaction by the police.

In the petition, filed through advocate Sana Khan, Wankhede has alleged that the police’s inaction in the matter has caused him and his family significant mental distress and humiliation. Wankhede’s counsel Rajiv Chavan argued that although Wankhede registered an FIR on August 14, 2022, with the Goregaon police station against Malik, the latter has not been arrested till date.

Wankhede arrested Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan in 2021 in a drug case.
The officer has alleged that after Sameer’s arrest, Malik launched a sustained campaign to defame and humiliate him and his family on social media and television, targeting their caste and questioning the authenticity of his caste certificate.