Salman moves HC against Panvel neighbour, calls his posts communally provocative

Bollywood actor Salman Khan on Friday told the Bombay high court that the videos uploaded about him on social media by his Panvel farmhouse neighbour Ketan Kakkad were not only defamatory in nature, but also communally provocative.

A single bench of Justice C V Bhadang was hearing an appeal filed by Khan challenging a civil court order of March 2022 refusing to grant him relief in a defamation suit he had filed against Kakkad.

The suit was filed against Kakkad pertaining to videos uploaded by him on social media about alleged activities of the actor at his farmhouse in Panvel.

Khan had sought the court to direct Kakkad to remove the defamatory videos and also to stop making further such comments.

When the civil court refused to pass such an order, the actor approached the high court.

On Friday, Khan's counsel Ravi Kadam argued that the civil court had erred in its order refusing injunction.

"The videos uploaded by Kakkad are blithely speculative. They were not only defamatory, but also communally provoked the viewers against Salman Khan," Kadam said.

Reading out the scripts of the videos, Kadam said Kakkad had spoken about how Khan, who is a member of a minority community, was trying to usurp a Ganesha temple (in Panvel near his farmhouse).

"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 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 senior counsel argued.

Kakkad also made several comments alleging that Khan was a member of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's gang, he added.

"Kakkad has alleged that Salman is running business of drug trafficking, organ trafficking and child trafficking from his farmhouse," Kadam said.

After hearing the brief arguments in the case, the bench posted the matter for further hearing on August 22.

Kakkad through his advocates Abha Singh and Aditya Singh had claimed in the lower court that the actor had filed a defamation suit to pressurise him to give up his land.