Dhyandev Wankhede moves Bombay High Court seeking contempt of court proceedings against Nawab Malik

Dhyandev Wankhede, father of former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer Sameer Wankhede has once again approached the Bombay High Court seeking issuance of contempt against Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik for continued breaches of the latter's undertakings to the High Court..The undertaking was given in a defamation suit filed by Wankhede against Malik, which is the genesis of the legal dispute between the two parties. This is the second such contempt petition filed by Wankhede. In an earlier petition, Wankhede had tendered an apology and agreed to abide by his undertaking..Wankhede in his present plea, claimed that despite tendering apology and restating the undertaking given to Court, Malik has continued to make public statements which was a wilful breach of the undertaking.There were three specific instances of contempt committed by Malik which Wankhede pointed out in his petition. Malik's tweet of December 28, 2021 conveying about the hearing of the Caste Scrutiny Committee into the allegations 'fake caste certificate' of Sameer Wankhede, which Wankhede claimed only cleverly reiterated his earlier allegations against his son; Malik's press conference of January 2, 2022 wherein Malik played two audio clips pertaining to Wankhede's work while he was in NCB. Wankhede alleged that the clips were a direct and targeted attack against the integrity of his son by repeatedly referring to him as a fraudster;Malik's second press conference of January 3, 2022 wherein he reiterated his previous allegations by openly stating that after Wankhede's son had been "dislodged from NCB" after his corrupt work had been exposed.Apart from these instances, Wankhede stated that Malik kept re-tweeting his old tweets on Malik and family. .In light of such continuous and wilful breach of undertaking by Malik, Wankhede prayed that the High Court should hold Malik in contempt of the undertaking given to the Court..The Wankhede - Malik case arose when the Dhyandev Wankhede filed a defamation suit alleging that Malik shared Sameer Wankhede’s purported birth certificate on his Twitter handle, while allegedly imputing that Wankhede’s father was a Muslim and his name was ‘Dawood’.Single-judge Justice Madhav Jamdar, had refused to grant interim injunction against Malik in the defamation suit but had nevertheless made certain adverse observations against Malik. Malik had then moved the Division Bench against the single-judge orderIn the last week of November 2021, Malik submitted a proposal to the High Court seeking quashing of that interim order. After Wankhede accepted the proposal, the High Court quashed and set aside the single-judge order on November 29 and remanded the interim application by Wankhede for hearing before another single-judge.Malik had then given an undertaking before the Division Bench on November 25 to refrain from making any defamatory statements till the interim application filed in Wankhede's defamation suit is reheard by a single-judge of the High Court.However, Wankehde had later approached the bench claiming that Malik continued to make statements in breach of this undertaking.Malik thereafter tendered an apology in response to the direction of the Court asking him to explain why contempt notice should not be issued against him.The present contempt petition was filed in this ongoing battle claiming that Malik continued to wilfully breach the undertaking given by him to the Court.