The Nawab Malik vs Devendra Fadnavis war-of-words escalated further with the two families slapping defamation notices on each other on Thursday.
This has led to full-scale political tussle between the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi and the opposition BJP.
While Malik, the NCP chief spokesperson and state’s Minority Affairs Minister continue to train guns on Fadnavis, the former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition's family countered the former with legal tools.
Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan, a businessman, has sent a defamation notice to Fadnavis demanding a compensation of Rs 5 crore. On the other hand, Fadnavis’s banker-activist wife Amruta Fadnavis retaliated with a defamation notice against Malik for maligning her image.
Malik’s daughter Nilofar Malik Khan took to Twitter to post the defamation notice, saying: “False accusations ruin lives. Before one accuses or condemns they must know what they are talking about. The defamation notice is for false claims and statements that Fadnavis put on my family. We will not back down,” she said.
The defamation notice has been sent through Advocate RI Ansari and marked to Fadnavis’ official residence in Mumbai and private residence in Nagpur.
The notice states that Khan was booked on January 9 and arrested on January 13 by the NCB on the charge that he was involved in the drug trade nationally and internationally.
It may be mentioned that NCB’s Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede supervised the investigations of the case.
The NCB filed the chargesheet on July 7 after which Khan was released on bail.
“….now Malik’s son-in-law was found with drugs in his possession… if narcotics are found in the house of a person, then what will their party be?” Fadnavis had reportedly said.
According to the notice, Fadnavis has been making allegations against Malik and the family without any substance. “The chargesheet filed by the NCB does not support even a single allegation levied by you,” it said.
On the other hand, Amruta, sent the legal notice through Hitesh Jain, the Managing Partner of Parinam Law Associates.
“Malik shared a series of defamatory, misleading and maligning tweets including some pictures! Here is the notice of defamation including criminal proceedings under various sections of IPC,” she tweeted.
Malik had tweeted photos of Fadnavis and Amruta with alleged drug peddler Jagdeep Rana.
"The allegations are made to gain cheap political mileage and with the sole intention to divert the attention of the public from the misrule and failure of the ruling government and the actions taken by central agencies against the drug menace," the notice states.
She demanded that the tweets be deleted in 48 hours and Malik should tender an unconditional apology.
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