Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik seemed to be in a jovial mood on Tueday after the Bombay HC's order refused to restrain him from posting against NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede's father and family.
The minister, in a lighter vein, released 'WhatsApp chats' between Sameer Wankhede's wife Kranti Redkar and one 'Captain Jack Sparrow.'
In the chats, Redkar is allegedly seen promising a reward to the user, who claims to have a photograph of Malik and one 'Dawood' who seemingly is underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
However, in the chats that followed, the user is seen sharing with Redkar a picture of Malik alongside film actor, politician Raj Babbar and claiming that his wife calls him 'Dawood' out of love.
Twitter/@nawabmalikncp
Twitter/@nawabmalikncp
The minister later clarified that the chats were fake by tweeting, "What a Joke, I received this morning. Enjoy... Have a nice day everyone."
The Bombay high court on Monday refused to pass any interim orders restraining Malik from making statements or posting content on social media against Sameer Wankhede or his family.
The HC passed the order in an application filed by the father of the NCB officer, Dnyandev Wankhede, in his defamation suit against Malik seeking Rs 1.25 crore in damages. Pending hearing in the suit, Dnyandev had sought interim restraint on Malik from making defamatory statements against him or his family.
The court said that Sameer Wankhede was a public officer and some of the allegations made against him by Malik were related to the discharge of his public duty.
However, the court questioned the timing of Malik’s social media posts, saying that the minister started making allegations on Twitter on October 14, after his own son-in-law was arrested by the NCB. This showed that the allegations against Wankhede were “actuated by malice and personal animosity”.
But serious allegations had been made by Malik against Wankhede and it could not be said at this stage the allegations were totally false but he should verify before posting, said the high court.
Malik had mainly made two allegations against Wankhede. The first allegation was that Wankhede was a Muslim by birth and that he had secured the government job by falsely claiming to be from a scheduled caste. The second allegation was that Wankhede had sought illegal gratification in cases filed by the NCB.
