mumbai the hc bench of justices nitin jamdar and sarang kotwal on thursday told the state to show some deference to an officer of sameer wankhedes rankwankhedes petition said the material on record shows that members of the ruling regimegovernment in the state of maharashtra including but not limited to a sitting minister of the present state government and members of the political party which forms part of government have unleashed an open tirade against the petitioner and hashave already pronounced a decision through television interviews twitter and other social media that the petitioner is guilty of offences of corruption and hence any investigation conducted by any state agency will be vitiated by mala fides and would be a gross abuse of the principles of a free and fair investigation if not an institutionalized persecution by the stateit further said the mala fides malice and ulterior motives for harming the petitioner by implicating him in false cases is reflected by the repeated statements being made by politicians including ministers in the state government to the extent of making wild and reckless allegations involving the family members of the petitioner including his father and his sistersenior counsel atul nanda with advocate ramiza hakim appearing for wankhede told court he is the zonal director of ncb and is investigating a case he is not a drug peddler nanda saidthe state has also set up a special investigation team sit to probe wankhede on some allegations nanda said either the cbi or nia should conduct a probe but the vilification has to be stopped i am being personally attacked by the state my apprehension is that the state will arrest me any day i want interim protection in the form of no coercive relief said nanda to the hc adding i see a design in the posts against me i am consciously not taking any names because i want to keep the majesty of the lawhe cited section 17a of the prevention of corruption act which he said provides prior sanction be taken from the centre in case of central government officials and yet the state has set up the sit to investigate him the hc asked nanda if the statute itself protects you why do you want protection from the court nanda replied that under the law the state cannot probe and if the state is violating its duty and overstepping the court may step in and protect me if my rights are likely to be violated they may arrest me todaypai said the petition is premature we have received four applications which are also against private individuals including a witness kiran gosavi we are just doing a preliminary enquiry so far we have not registered any fir against wankhede when hc asked the pp on rights under section 17 a pai replied we are conducting an inquiry against the private person gosavi dont know what comes of it he wankhede is asking for a blanket protection i need time to answer