Sameer Wankhede, former Bombay zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), on September 25 filed a defamation suit in the Delhi high court, seeking a permanent and mandatory injunction on Aryan Khan’s web series, The Ba***ds Of Bollywood, for allegedly maligning his reputation. Wankhede had hit the headlines when he arrested Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan, from a luxury cruise ship in October 2021 on charges of involvement in a drug case.
In the suit filed against OTT platform Netflix, production house Red Chillies Entertainment, X Corp, Google LLC, Meta Platforms Inc., RPG Lifestyle Media Pvt. Ltd. and others, the IRS officer has also alleged “misleading and negative portrayal” of the anti-drug enforcement agency in the series. He has sought an award for damages of Rs. 2 crore to be donated to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital.
The web series, which premiered on Netflix on September 18, is directed by Aryan Khan.
In his plea, Sameer Wankhede said, the distorted portrayal of anti-drug enforcement agencies in the series could erode public confidence in law enforcement institutions. He cited a scene in which a character makes an obscene gesture — showing a middle finger — after saying ‘Satyamev Jayate’, a slogan that is part of the National Emblem. The plea states that this constitutes a “grave and sensitive violation” of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
The plea also alleges that the series was deliberately conceptualised and executed with the intent to malign Wankhede’s reputation in a “colourable and prejudicial manner”. In particular, it objects to references made to Aryan’s arrest, highlighting that the case was sub judice and pending before the Bombay high court and a Bombay special court dealing with cases under the NDPS Act.. The plea also states that the content of the series is in contravention of various provisions of the IT Act and BNS.