JSW signs MoU with state to invest ₹3L crore

The JSW Group on Tuesday announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra government to invest ₹3,00,000 crore across sectors in the Naxal insurgency-affected Gadchiroli district.

- Karuna Nidhi

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police have informed the Bombay high court that they have decided to file a closure report in the atrocities case registered against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik based on a complaint lodged by former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) director Sameer Wankhede in August 2022.

On January 14, additional public prosecutor SS Kaushik informed a division bench of justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale that the police, after investigating the case, have decided to file a C Summary Report, which means there is no evidence against the accused and the case is neither true nor false. Once a closure report is filed, the complainant can challenge it. After hearing all parties, the court can either accept or reject the closure report.

In his petition filed last year, Wankhede, who belongs to the Mahar Scheduled Caste, accused Malik of making defamatory remarks about him and his family members based on their caste during media interactions. This was after the NCB, then headed by Wankhede, had arrested Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan in January 2021 in a drug-trafficking case.

The Goregaon police had registered an FIR against Malik in August 2022 following Wankhede's complaint, charging the NCP leader under section 3(1)(u) of the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which prohibits the promotion of hatred or ill-will against members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

However, Malik was never arrested, and neither was a charge sheet filed. Wankhede, in his petition, claimed that Malik wasn't arrested and the police did not conduct an investigation despite the offence being cognizable and non-bailable because of the NCP leader's influence.