A single bench of Justice C V Bhadang was hearing an appeal filed by Salman Khan challenging a trialcourt order of March 2022 declining to give him relief in a defamation case he had filed against his Panvel farmhouse neighbour Ketan Kakkad.
The suit was filed against Kakkad by Salman Khan concerning about the videos uploaded by him on social media about alleged activities of the Bollywood Actor at his farmhouse in Panvel.
The actor had appealed to the court to ask Kakkad to remove the defamatory videos and also to stop making any more such comments. When the districtcourt refused to pass such an order, Khan went to the high court.
On Friday, Salman’s Lawyer Ravi Kadam argued that the civil court had mistaken in passing its decree. “The videos uploaded by Kakkad are blithely speculative. They were not only defamatory, but also communally provoked the viewers against Salman Khan,” Advocate argued.
“In the video, the defendant (Kakkad) compares Salman Khan to Babar and Aurangazeb. He (Kakkad) says it had taken 500 years for the Ayodhya Mandir (temple) to come up and here Salman Khan is trying to shut down a Ganeshatemple,” Kadam said.
“These videos are watched by lakhs of viewers who then post their comments against Salman Khan. This is clearly provoking the viewers against Salman. The videos have communalised everything and made it Hindus vs Muslims,” the Lawyer stated.
Kadam further said, ‘Kakkad also made several comments alleging that Khan was a member of Underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim’s gang’.
“Kakkad has alleged that Salman is running different businesses of drugs as well as organ and child trafficking from his farmhouse,” Kadam said.
After the hearing of the case in brief, the bench posted the matter for further hearing on August 22.
Kakkad through his Advocates Abha Singh and Aditya Singh had stated in the trial court that Salman had filed a defamation suit to pressurise him to give up his land.
