Caravan defamation case: Patiala House Court reserves order for summoning of accused

The order will be on March 2.

WrittenBy:Cherry Agarwal
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On February 22, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal reserved the order for the summoning of accused persons in the defamation case filed by Vivek Doval. The accused include The Caravan, its reporter Kaushal Shroff and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. The order will be announced on March 2.

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Speaking to Newslaundry after the hearing, Vivek Doval said: “I am a professional working out of Singapore. I have to get back to my work. For this case, I have to travel every time. It takes a tremendous amount of time (away from work) for a person running a startup business.” Referring to allegations of “round-tripping of money”, Doval said, “I work in an industry which is very sensitive to allegations like money laundering etc. I am doing this because this is the right thing to do. I have provided all the proof to the honourable court.”

On January 22, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s son, Vivek Doval, had filed a criminal defamation complaint. The complaint was filed after The Caravan published an article titled The D Companies. The article alleges that Doval’s sons run a web of companies including a Cayman Islands hedge fund even as the NSA advocated for a crackdown on tax havens.

Following the report’s publication, the Congress party had held a press conference where Jairam Ramesh had demanded a probe by the Reserve Bank on India into FDI flows from the tax haven. “There should be a probe into the FDI that came into the country from the Cayman Islands after demonetisation,” Ramesh was quoted as saying. “What is the role of GNY Asia in FDI inflows. We demand that the Reserve Bank makes public all funds from where money has come into the country from the Cayman Island,” the Congress leader had added.

The complainant, Vivek, is the director of the hedge fund, GNY Asia Fund, according to Caravan’s story.

Today, Vivek’s lawyer, DP Singh, made pre-summoning arguments at the Patiala House Court. Singh began his arguments by reading excerpts from Section 499 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code. He was making an argument as to why the publication of the article is defamatory and does not fall under certain exceptions which are listed under Section 499. Singh also read out one of Jairam Ramesh’s answers from the Congress presser held earlier. He said that these weren’t innuendo, but direct insinuation.

Singh also argued that the presser was an act of malice.“The press conference did not stop there…they went and uploaded the press conference for the people who were not there and for the world to see…they even uploaded the transcript.” This is to say they were ensuring to reach the largest possible audience, he added.

The lawyer also stated that the article carried factual inaccuracies. “The paper comes out with damaging imputations without really checking the imputation of the jargon, wrong facts used together, that totally demolished the reputation of the petitioner and his family.” He further said that the article has damaged Doval’s professional career and reputation as a hedge fund manager.

Objecting to the usage of Vivek’s image, Singh said, “Why should Vivek Doval be named and his picture be used so prominently… this just goes on to show the mentality with which the article was written.” He also objected to the suggestion that Vivek’s father, NSA Ajit Doval, was involved in the running of the hedge fund. “My father has been a celebrated police officer…it goes to show that it is not simply an exercise to defame but it is an effort to target a person who has no link with any of the company or the running of it or any beneficial position.”

Referring to the connection between the Doval brothers’ businesses and the House of Saud, Singh pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gone to receive Saudi Crown Prince. He argued that the country is looking for investments from Saudi Arabia so “why should such references be mentioned in such a depreciatory way”.

In his concluding arguments, Singh said: “I (Vivek Doval) work in an industry which is very sensitive to such allegations. I’ve lost reputation, investments etc. There has been irreparable damage to my reputation and public image…they should be punished.”

On February 11, two witnesses had recorded their statements, attesting to the harm to Vivek Doval’s reputation. These included Vivek’s business partner Amit Sharma and friend Nikhil Kapur.

Newslaundry also reached out to the Caravan’s executive editor Vinod Jose and political editor Hartosh Singh for comments. “We stand by the story. And everything in it is based on documents acquired from public agencies in the US, UK, Singapore and Cayman Island. We have sent a detailed questionnaire to Vivek Doval—dropped it at his office, emailed him and sent by Facebook. We also gave four days for him to respond,” Jose said.  

Bal added: “There is nothing for us to say since this is a demand directed to the court, not at us.”

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