HC stays notice to Nawab Malik over Prevention of Atrocities Act complaint

The Bombay High Court here on Friday stayed a notice issued by a court in Washim district of Maharashtra to state minister Nawab Malik in an atrocities act complaint filed by NCB officer Sameer Wankhede's cousin.

Malik's lawyer Jagvijay Singh Gandhi said that Wankhede's cousin Sanjay Wankhede had filed a complaint at a special court in Washim, seeking registration of a case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the NCP leader.

On December 4, the Washim court issued a notice to Malik seeking his reply, he said. "We challenged the notice before the Nagpur bench of the High Court contending that the complaint is not backed by affidavit. Besides, we need not have been made party for the purpose of the directions the complainant was seeking," the lawyer told PTI.

"Moreover, the complaint does not disclose any cognizable offence. Therefore it must be quashed," advocate Gandhi added. The complaint alleged that Malik's tweets and public statements claiming that Sameer Wankhede was a Muslim but obtained a bogus caste certificate hurt the complainant Sanjay Wankhede's sentiments.

He had the right to file a complaint being a member of the joint family to which Sameer belongs, the complaint stated. Justice Rohit Deo, after hearing the arguments, stayed the notice issued to Malik, advocate Gandhi said. Malik, minister for minority development, had alleged that Sameer Wankhede, the Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, was born a Muslim but got his government job under the SC quota by obtaining a bogus caste certificate. Wankhede has denied the charge and his father has filed a defamation suit against the minister.

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