The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued summons to the streaming platform Netflix, production house Red Chillies Entertainment, and intermediary platforms Google, X and Meta in a defamation suit filed by former Narcotics Control Bureau Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, Bar and Bench reported.

Wankhede had claimed in his suit filed in September that the recently released Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood, directed by Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, portrays him in a defamatory manner.

The Indian Revenue Service officer has sought Rs 2 crore in damages, which he said would be donated to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital in Mumbai.

Wankhede headed a Narcotics Control Bureau team that had arrested Aryan Khan in the 2021 Cordelia cruise case.

Hearing the matter on Wednesday, Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav directed the defendants to file their replies within seven days.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on October 30.

During the hearing, Wankhede’s lawyer told the court that his allegedly defamatory portrayal in the series had led to the officer, his wife and his sister facing trolling online. He described the posts about them as “ex facie defamatory” and “shocking”, Live Law reported.

However, the court refused to pass an interim order on the application seeking the removal of the allegedly defamatory posts, The Hindu reported.

“It could have wider ramifications,” the court observed.

In his suit, Wankhede has claimed that the series was “deliberately conceptualised and executed” to malign his reputation “in a colourable and prejudicial manner”, even as proceedings related to the matter are pending before the Bombay High Court and a special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances court.

The suit also objected to a scene in which a character makes an obscene gesture after reciting the slogan “Satyamev Jayate”.

Wankhede contended that the gesture was a grave violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.

The 2021 Cordelia case

On October 2, 2021, Aryan Khan was arrested along with his friend Arbaaz Merchant, model Munmun Dhamecha and others after a raid on Cordelia cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai.

The agency had claimed to recover several narcotic substances from the ship.

On October 28, 2021, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Aryan Khan and others, noting that he was not found in possession of drugs and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy.

In May 2022, the Narcotics Control Bureau cleared Khan of charges in the case as it did not find corroborative evidence against him.

Soon after, Wankhede was transferred to the Directorate General of Taxpayer Services in Chennai.

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