Salman Khan to Bombay HC: Neighbour's social media posts communally provocative

Bollywood actor Salman Khan has alleged that the videos posted by his Panvel farmhouse neighbour Ketan Kakkad on his social media was not only defamatory in nature, but also communally provocative.

Khan made the accusations before the Bombay High Court where he has filed an appeal challenging the order of the city civil court which refused to grant him relief in defamation suit against Kakkad.

Whereas, Kakkad, through his advocates Abha Singh and Aditya Singh had claimed that the actor had filed a defamation suit to pressurise him to give up his land.

On March 30, the Mumbai City Civil Court held that the allegations made by Salman Khan's neighbour, Ketan Kakkad, which the actor claimed were defamatory, were in fact deduced to be true.

Khan has challenged this before the HC.

On Friday, the appeal was heard before justice CV Bhadang, where the actor has sought that Kakkad be directed to remove the defamatory videos and restrain him from making further such comments.

Ravi Kadam, Khan’s counsel, argued that the lower court had made an error in not granting him relief. Kadam argued: “The videos uploaded by Kakkad are blithely speculative. They were not only defamatory, but also communally provoked the viewers against Salman Khan.”

Kadam then read out from the scripts of the videos and pointed out how Kakkad had spoken about how Khan, who is a member of a minority community, was trying to usurp a Ganesh temple (in Panvel).

“In the video, the defendant (Kakkad) compares Salman Khan to Babar and Aurangazeb. He (Kakkad) says it had taken 500 years for the Ayodhya Mandir (temple) to come up and here Salman Khan is trying to shut down a Ganesha temple,” said Kadam, adding: “These videos are watched by lakhs of viewers who then post their comments against Salman Khan. This is clearly provoking the viewers against Salman. The videos have communalised everything and made it Hindus vs Muslims.”

Kakkad also made several comments alleging that Khan was a member of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's gang and that he is running business of drug trafficking, organ trafficking and child trafficking from his farmhouse, said Kadam.

The HC has kept the matter for further hearing on August 22.