Madhya Pradesh High Court has rejected a plea filed by actor Kamaal Rashid Khan, also known as KRK, seeking to quash a criminal defamation case filed by actor Manoj Bajpayee, according to a report by Live Law.
The case was filed by Bajpayee in 2021 against KRK for allegedly trying to harm his reputation by calling him a 'Charsi Ganjedi' in his defamatory tweets.
In continuation to the Live Law report, the bench of Justice Satyendra Kumar Singh prima facie observed that addressing Bajpayee, who is an actor, as 'Charasi Ganjedi' was sufficient to harm his image and reputation, denying relief to KRK.
The High Court observed, "Calling/addressing someone 'Charasi Ganjedi' cannot be equated with the illustration 'D' of 6th exception to Section 499 of IPC, as argued by learned counsel for the applicant."
History of Case
As per Live Law, The Family Man actor had filed a criminal complaint against KRK under section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for allegedly committing offence under sections 499 and 500, and attempting to harm his reputation with his defamatory tweets. KRK had allegedly posted two tweets on 26 July 2021, calling the actor a 'Charsi Ganjedi'.
The complaint was taken into consideration by the court and was registered under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code.
In response, KRK challenged the Indore Court's decision, and moved the High Court claiming that he had sold the Twitter handle from which the tweets in question were made on 22 October 2020. Therefore, asserting that he cannot be liable for the tweets that were posted from that handle.
However, Bajpayee's legal representative argued that the declaration by which KRK's Twitter handle, KRK BOXOFFICE, was allegedly sold, cannot be taken into account at this stage.
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