WAPIZ bailed out

The WAPIZ Page (WP), the mouthpiece of the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis may have gone into hibernation over the past three or four months, but the aftereffects of their earlier malicious attacks still continue to haunt the orthodox group. On May 15 WAPIZ founder trustee and Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee Yazdi Desai and his wife Anahita, a member of the WP editorial board, posted bail of Rs 10,000 each in the court of the Additional Chief Metropolitan (ACMM) Magistrate at Ballard Estate in a defamation case filed by developer Zarir Bhathena on July 28, 2006.

Zarir Bhathena: aggrieved by WAPIZ

Others named in the suit are WAPIZ founder trustees Areez Khambatta and Khojeste Mistree as well as the publisher Shashikant Jadhav and managing editor Mark Manuel of the Afternoon Despatch and Courier (ADC) in whose newspaper the WP used to be published. When the ADC closed temporarily due to differences in the paper’s management, the WP shifted to The Free Press Journal. Mistree was in Karachi on the day of the hearing and notice had to be served on Khambatta who is based in Ahmedabad.
Jadhav’s bail application claimed he was "innocent and falsely implicated in the case (and) accused therefore prays that (he) may be enlarged on bail.”
In an order dated April 13, 2011 the ACMM had stated, "I have heard the learned advocate for the complainant. I am satisfied that there are sufficient grounds to proceed against (them) for the offence punishable under sections 500 (defamation), 501 (printing matter known to be defamatory), 502 (sale of printed defamatory matter)…”
Efforts to arrive at a settlement reportedly came to naught when Desai and others were not agreeable to withdraw cases filed against Bhathena in regard to the construction of Hilla Towers at Lalbaug even if Bhathena withdrew the defamation suit.
The plaint describes Bhathena as "a chartered accountant by profession and also a social worker. He is also a director of one Hilla Builders Private Limited. The said company is a well-established construction company for the last 16 years. The complainant as a professional, social worker and a businessman is respected and enjoys tremendous goodwill and reputation in the society generally and especially in the Parsi Irani community.”

(Clockwise from top l): Areez Khambatta, Kho­-jeste Mistree, Anahita and Yazdi Desai

According to the complaint filed by the developer’s lawyers, Vigil Juris, the issue of the ADC dated February 2, 2006 under the heading "Let figures speak for themselves,” termed Bhathena an "Opportunistic builder.” It was alleged that he had made "an obscenely large personal profit” from the construction and sale of the Hilla Towers flats. The WP further alleged that Bhathena had set "the worst kind of precedent for unscrupulous Parsi builders to take advantage of our agiary lands.”
WP further alleged that the Hilla Towers project had desecrated the Wadia agiary at Lalbaug.
"The complainant submits that the said article is grossly per se defamatory of him and maliciously published as part of a smear campaign to malign, ridicule and humiliate the complainant in the eyes of the general public and the society at large, especially the Parsi Irani community,” the plaint stated.
A letter dated February 10, 2006 was sent to all "the accused individually and dispatched to them by registered post AD and hand delivery… (and) called upon them to forthwith publicly apologize to him and prominently publish the same on the front page of the said newspaper… However they have failed to tender any such apology or show any repentance for their said write-up…
"In the circumstances, the complainant submits that the accused have defamed the complainant in connivance with each other by printing, publishing and circulating the said write-up.”
In an e-mail clarification sent to Parsiana, Desai wrote: "There was no ‘arrest’... We will be defending what was written in the WAPIZ Page, when the court hearings begin.”