Mumbai court rejects Salman Khan's interim plea for gag order in defamation suit against NRI neighbour

Salman Khan. File pic

A sessions court in Mumbai has rejected actor Salman Khan's interim plea for 'gag order' in a defamation suit against his NRI neighbour Ketan Kakkar and social media platforms over Panvel Farmhouse dispute.

The verdict of Sessions Court Judge AH Laddhad was pronounced on March 23, the detailed order of which came on Wednesday.

The court has rejected Salman's plea against his neighbour Ketan R Kakkar and social media platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, Sandeep Phogat, Paras Bhat and Ujjwal Narain as parties.

Judge Laddhad rejected Salman's notice of motion awarding costs to Kakkar and disposed of the matter.

The verdict noted that Kakkar had placed on record evidence like complaints and show-cause notices to Salman about the allegations of encroachments by the actor in his Panvel property, the 100-acres Farm, in the public interest as a "whistle-blower".

Speaking to ANI, Lawyer of Ketan Kakkar Advocate Aditya Pratap Singh said that his client is an NRI and had purchased a piece of land in Panvel near Salman Khan's farmhouse.

"He (Salman) tried to snatch that land by several means using his contacts in police and officials etc. When my client tried to put his views about the factual position of the case Salman Khan approached Mumbai City Civil and Sessions court seeking an injunction against my client but the court has rejected his application and has prima facie held that whatever allegations my client has made against him are based on evidence," Singh said.

Salman has alleged that Kakkar is causing "grave and irreparable harm, loss of goodwill, reputation and injury to him and his family members, by making/publishing defamatory, false, derogatory, libelous posts, messages, tweets, videos, interviews, communications and correspondence about the plaintiff and his familymembers on various social media platforms."

Kakkar, in live videos/Sessions on Facebook, hosted a session by the name "Salman Khan ke farmhouse ka ganda sach aya sabke samne", which was also later uploaded on A Youtube ch0annel by the name "Phogat Films" by name "Big Revelation Real Truth behind Farmhouse of Khan family// Close neighbour told us the truth".

Notably, Kakkar has claimed that in or around 1995, he and his wife had acquired/ purchased a certain plot of land near Salman's farmhouse, for constructing a house, ashram, temple, etc.

Kakkar also claimed that the plot of land allotted to him was allegedly cancelled by the Maharashtra forest department at the behest and in collusion with the Khan's, who also that the entry and exit to his plot of land were illegally acquired and blocked by constructing a gate.

He also claimed that he had constructed an ecofriendly Ganesh Temple, access to the same also was allegedly blocked and the said temple is grabbed/ usurped by Salman's family.

Salman, in his complaint, contended that, in fact, the defendants are inciting communal violence of HinduMuslim and hatred by making provocative, baseless and false statements based on religion, which are absolutely irrelevant and absurd.

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