NCP minister Nawab Malik granted bail in defamation case filed by BJP's Mohit Bharatiya

NCP leader Nawab Malik. File Pic

A court here on Wednesday granted bail to Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik in a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by local BJP leader Mohit Bharatiya.

The NCP leader tried to link Bharatiya with the NCB's drug raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast last year, the complaint alleges.

In December 2021, the Mazgaon metropolitan magistrate had issued a summons to Malik, asking him to appear before it.

On Wednesday, Malik remained present in the court, following which the magistrate granted him bail on a surety of Rs 15,000.

"The accused (Malik) is directed not to indulge in similar kind of offences alleged by the complainant against the complainant in future, otherwise the bail bond would be cancelled," the court said in its order.

Further hearing on the complaint would be held on January 29, it added.

Bharatiya's complaint claimed that Malik misused his position to defame the BJP leader and his family by making highly speculative and malicious statements without providing any evidence. This is the second defamation complaint filed by Bharatiya against the minister. Malik, at press conferences on the Narcotics Control Bureau's alleged drug bust on a cruise ship during which actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan and others were arrested, slandered Bharatiya and his brother-in-law Rishab Sachdev, the present complaint alleged.

Malik tried to connect Bharatiya to the drug raid and also falsely claimed that Bharatiya had met NCB's then zonal director Sameer Wankhede, it said.

Bharatiya had issued two legal notices to Malik in October last year, asking him to stop making allegations, before moving the court.

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