A magistrate court in Mumbai on Tuesday cancelled a non-bailable warrant issued against NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik in a defamation complaint filed against him by BJP worker Mohit Bharatiya in 2021.
The matter has been adjourned to October 25 for recording of evidence.
Prior to last month, Additional Metropolitan Magistrate SB Kale (Mazgaon court) issued the NBW against Malik for failing to appear before the court.
The NBW was cancelled after the former state minister marked his presence before the court.
In October 2021, Bharatiya filed a complaint against Malik for allegedly making “baseless comments” in connection with the NCB’s cruise drug seizure case, where Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was arrested.
He sought registration of offence against Malik under IPC sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation).
Furthermore, Bharatiya in his complaint alleged that Malik, in a press conference on the NCB’s action, “purposefully and intentionally defamed” him and his brother-in-law Rishab Sachdev.
In the complaint, Bharatiya alleged that Malik grossly misused his dominant position to defame him and his family with highly speculative statements without any evidence for substantiating his malicious claims.
Previously in February 2022, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Malik in a case allegedly linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his associates.
Currently, Malik is out on interim bail granted to him last month on medical grounds by the Supreme Court.
