A magistrate court in Sewri on Monday summoned Maharashtra Minister for Minority Affairs and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik in a criminal defamation complaint filed by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker and former president of the party’s youth wing, Mohit Bharatiya, stating that prima facie the words spoken by Malik were such that they had harmed Bharatiya’s reputation.
Metropolitan Magistrate PI Mokashi, in his detailed order, said that he had gone through the documents and video clips produced by Bharatiya and that they “prima facie reveal that accused Nawab Malik has spoken words in the press conference...various news channels and social media platforms so that it will be seen by public at large”. The court added that it was also prima facie proved that the words spoken by Nawab Malik were so that they harmed the reputation of the complainant. The ingredients of the offence of criminal defamation were prima facie proved, it said.
Bharatiya had approached the court with the complaint that Malik had linked him and his brother-in-law Rishabh Sachdev in a press conference and some TV interviews to the cruise case probed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). Malik had alleged that the BJP worker’s relative was let off along with one other person by the Central agency though he was among the 14 people it had detained on October 2, along with Aryan. He indicated that this was due to Bharatiya’s political influence.
Bharatiya said he was a businessman and had held posts such as president of the Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association and that the minister had misused his position to defame him. He had sought that the court summon Malik before it so that he could be dealt with in accordance with the law.
