After the Sessions Court earlier refused to pass a restraining order against his Panvel farmhouse neighbour, actor Salman Khan had now filed an appeal in the Bombay High Court. Salman alleged that the neighbour Ketan Kakkar made defamatory posts against him on social media. He also claimed that the posts are ‘communally biased’.
Salman’s lawyer Ravi Kadam said in court, “The videos uploaded by Kakkad are blithely speculative. They were not only defamatory, but also communally provoked the viewers against Salman Khan.”
“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 Ganesha temple,” Kadam added.
Kakkad had claimed that he and his wife had bought a plot near Salman’s farmhouse around 1995 to construct a house or temple or ashram. He had further alleged that the Maharashtra forest department canceled the land allocation at Salman’s behest.
The Sessions court, in an order pronounced in March by Judge AH Laddhad, had noted that Kakkad had placed evidence like show-cause notices sent to the actor about the allegations of encroachment. Salman had sought to have the videos uploaded by Kakkad removed.
The matter has been posted for hearing on 22 August.
(With inputs from PTI)
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