The court will next hear the matter on July 18.
The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to NDTV and its CEO and editor-in-chief Rahul Kanwal after businessman Anil Ambani filed a defamation suit over the channel’s reporting on CBI and ED investigations involving his companies, Bar and Bench reported.
Ambani told the court that NDTV, whose majority shareholder is the Adani Group, had published 72 reports against him over the past few months as part of what he described as the group’s “predatory strategies” aimed at taking over his companies.
Representing Ambani, advocate Shri Venkatesh argued that while investigative agencies had registered cases against Reliance group entities, NDTV repeatedly named Ambani personally in its coverage whenever arrests were made.
Justice Subramonium Prasad then asked NDTV to respond to Ambani’s plea for interim injunction against the publication of the allegedly defamatory news reports and listed the matter for further proceedings on July 18, according to Bar and Bench.
Ambani has sought over Rs 2 crores in damages, which, he said, will be donated to charity.
Ambani has also named Adani-owned IANS, NDTV managing editor Manoranjan Bharti, NDTV Profit managing editor Tamanna Inamdar and IANS editor Ashish Manchanda as defendants.
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