Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede has filed a defamation suit in the Delhi high court seeking permanent and mandatory injunctions against the Netflix series “Ba***ds of Bollywood” producers.
He sought ₹2 crore as damages to be donated to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, alleging the series had been deliberately conceptualised and executed to malign his reputation in a colourable and prejudicial manner.
Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan and the series co-writer and director, was arrested after Wankhede raided the yacht Cordelia in Mumbai in October 2021. The NCB in 2022 exonerated Khan and five others as it filed a charge sheet against 14 people in the case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of NCB found no evidence that Aryan Khan was part of a larger drug conspiracy or an international trafficking syndicate, and that there were several irregularities in the raid during which he was arrested.
Wankhede, who was repatriated to his parent cadre, faced a probe for allegedly demanding a ₹25 crore bribe from Shah Rukh Khan.
In his suit, Wankhede said the series disseminates a misleading and negative portrayal of anti-drug enforcement agencies. “[The] series depicts a character making an obscene gesture-specifically, showing a middle finger after the character recites the slogan ‘Satyamev Jayate’, which is part of the National Emblem. This act constitutes a grave and sensitive violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which attracts penal consequences under law,” the suit said.
Wankhede has made Gauri Khan and Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment Limited, Netflix, X, and Google as parties to the suit. He said the series outraged national sentiment through the use of obscene and offensive material.