Defamation suit: Nawab Malik, father of Sameer Wankhede present documents before court

Nawab Malik submitted two school-leaving certificates and an admission certificate of Sameer Wankhede, which showed his name as Sameer Dawood Wankhede and his religion as Muslim

The Bombay high court (HC) took on record three documents submitted by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra minority affairs minister Nawab Malik and two documents by Dyandeo Wankhede – the father of Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede – in the defamation suit filed by the latter, seeking injunction against the politician and his associates from posting or making any statement on social media till the suit was decided.

In his defamation suit, Dyandeo Wankhede has sought ₹1.25 crore as damages and deletion of all articles, statements and comments made by Nawab Malik against the NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede and other members of the family. (HT PHOTO)

In his defamation suit, Dyandeo Wankhede has sought ₹1.25 crore as damages and deletion of all articles, statements and comments made by Malik against the NCB zonal director and other members of the family. However, HC had said that it would only decide on the issue of injunction on future comments and statements made by Malik against Wankhede on any media platform.

The single-judge bench of justice Madhav Jamdar, which had reserved its order after hearing arguments of both Wankhede and Malik on November 12, was approached by the politician’s counsel on Wednesday, seeking permission to submit additional documents pertaining to the suit. The bench permitted it and held the hearing of both the sides on Thursday in chambers.

Senior advocate Atul Damle, representing Malik, submitted three documents, which included two primary school-leaving certificates and a primary admission certificate of Sameer Wankhede, which showed his name as Sameer Dawood Wankhede and religion Muslim. The admission certificate had the same information. The primary school leaving certificate is of St Paul School and admission form and school leaving certificate of St Joseph School.

The documents submitted by Malik were to prove that he had not resorted to any defamatory act against the petitioner by stating that Sameer’s original name was Sameer Dawood Wankhede on Twitter, based on the documents shown by him previously and even on Thursday.

Advocate Arshad Shaikh, who represented Dyandeo Wankhede, submitted two documents which included the birth certificate issued by the Mumbai civic body on November 17 and a 1974 caste certificate which showed that he belonged to the Mahar community.

On November 12, Shaikh had submitted an affidavit listing 28 documents to substantiate that the petitioner’s name was Dyandeo and not Dawood as claimed by Malik.

“It will be an unending process. He [Malik] kept quiet for four days and now he continues to write my son’s name as Sameer Dawood Wankhede. Malik’s contention is that Sameer’s name got corrected when he was in Class 5 to get the caste certificate, implying that he knew he would be joining IRS (Indian Revenue Service),” Dyandeo Wankhede argued.

After taking the documents of both the sides on record, the bench said it would pronounce the order on November 22 at 5.30pm.