Mumbai: It’s Sameer Wankhede vs Aryan Khan again.
Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Wankhede, who led the investigation against Aryan after arresting Shah Rukh Khan’s son in the 2021 drugs-on-cruise case, has moved the Delhi High Court against Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan-owned Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, global streaming platform Netflix, and others.
Wankhede has filed a Rs 2 crore defamation suit over Aryan’s directorial debut ‘The Ba**ds of Bollywood’, alleging that the web series contains “false, malicious, and defamatory content” intended to tarnish his image.
Claiming that the show projects a misleading and negative portrayal of anti-drug enforcement agencies, Wankhede has said that it has been conceptualised deliberately and executed with the intent of maligning his reputation in a prejudicial manner. Wankhede has pointed out that the series has come at a time when proceedings involving him and Aryan are pending before Bombay High Court and NDPS Special Court, Mumbai.
The ex-NCB officer, who was removed from the case in 2023 after the CBI registered a corruption case against him and four others for allegedly conspiring to extort Rs 25 crore from the family of one of those on board the cruise ship in exchange for not booking him, has argued in the defamation suit that the portrayal in the Netflix series unfairly targets him at a time when judicial scrutiny is ongoing.
The defamation suit has referred to a sequence in series which features a character making an obscene gesture after reciting ‘Satyamev Jayate’, stating that the act amounts to a grave and sensitive violation of the provisions of Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which attracts penal consequences under the law.
Wankhede also claimed that the content of the series is in contravention of different provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as it seeks to outrage national sentiment through use of obscene and offensive material.
Seeking damages of Rs 2 crore, Wankhede has sought that the amount be donated to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital for the treatment of cancer patients.
The defamation suit also seeks the high court’s direction to restrain the streaming and distribution of the web series, along with a declaration of its defamatory nature. Besides harming his personal reputation, Wankhede has contended that the content undermines faith in institutions responsible for enforcing drug laws.
