Salman Khan approaches court against ‘neighbour’ on charges of defamation; next hearing on Jan 21

Bollywood actor Salman Khan has sued his ‘neighbour’ Ketan Kakkad for alleged defamation in regards to which the Mumbai City Civil Court on Friday refused to pass any interim restraining order in favour of the actor.

According to news agency PTI, Ketan Kakkad apparently owns a plot near Salman Khan’s farmhouse in Panvel. The actor approached the court alleging that in an interview with a YouTube channel, Ketan has defamed Salman Khan. Judge Anil H Laddhad directed Kakkad to file his reply and posted the matter for further hearing on January 21, the news agency reported.

Lawyers from DSK Legal which represents Khan sought an interim injunction (order) restraining Kakkad from making any further defamatory statements during the pendency of the suit. But Kakkad’s lawyers Abha Singh and Aditya Pratap opposed the prayer, saying they received case papers only on Thursday evening and could not go through the entire suit.

Kakkad’s lawyers also said that if Salman Khan had waited for a month to file the suit, then their client Kakkad should also get some time to file the reply.

According to Salman Khan’s complaint, apart from Kakkad, two other people participated in the show. They have also been named as respondents. Social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and search engine Google have been made parties to the suit as Salman wants the defamatory content to be removed from the internet. The actor also wants a permanent order restraining Kakkad from positing or publishing any defamatory content about the actor or the farmhouse.

According to a Bar and Bench report, Salman Khan’s plea pointed out that Kakkad had attempted to purchase a plot of land beside Khan’s Panvel farmhouse but the transaction was cancelled by the authorities as they deemed it illegal. Since then, Kakkad had been raising false and baseless accusations that the transaction got cancelled because of Salman Khan. The “false, disparaging and defamatory” allegations in videos, posts and tweets are causing harm and loss to the actor, his family members and also to his business ventures, Salman’s lawyers said.

“Comments made by Defendants travel well beyond the scope of fair comment” the suit stated.