Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ wife has sent a legal notice to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik for “tarnishing the image of her family” through his alleged defamatory tweets. Posting the copy of the legal notice on Twitter, Amruta Fadanvis warned Malik to either delete the tweets in 48 hours with an “unconditional apology or face action”.
The NCP leader, currently a minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, had accused Fadnavis and his wife of having close links with an alleged drug dealer, Jaydeep Rana. Malik had shared pictures of Amruta and Rana together at an event. Amruta has defended the photographs saying those were clicked during an organised in Mumbai for the conservation of rivers and Rana was hired by the creative team of the organisers.
“The said event was organised by activists who has formed a social group under the name of ‘River March’ with an initiative to save the rivers of Mumbai…It is stated that Mr. Jaideep Rana was hired by the creative team of ‘River March’ and our client or her family had no association with him,” the notice reads.
Amruta’s lawyers alleged that Nawab Malik “consciously and selectively” shared those pictures which “reflects your malafide intentions to tarnish” her image.
The legal notice was sent a day after Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan, now on bail in a drug-related case, sent a similar notice to Devendra Fadnavis for “mental torture, agony, financial loss and injury” inflicted to his reputation because of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader’s statement on a television channel.
The allegations and counter-allegations were made after Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan, was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau in the drugs-on-cruise case. Aryan Khan was later granted bail by the Bombay High Court. Malik initially targeted NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who was leading the drugs-on-cruise case investigation, accusing the officer of running an extortion racket and forging caste documents to get into Indian Revenue Services (IRS).