Ajit Doval’s son accuses Caravan magazine, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh of defamation

Vivek Doval, the son of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, has moved Patiala House to file a criminal defamation complaint against Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, the editor-in-chief of Caravan magazine and reporter Kaushal Sharoff. Caravan had published a story last week titled “The D-Companies”, which alleged that Doval’s sons “run a web of companies including a Cayman Islands hedge fund even as father demands crackdown on tax havens”.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal is likely to hear the matter on Tuesday, The Hindu reports.

After the report came out, the Congress held a press conference asking for an RBI probe into FDI inflows into the Cayman Islands. The Times of India reports that Congress leader Jairam Ramesh “asked the RBI to make public details of FDI inflows from Cayman islands since demonetisation, which he claimed were to the tune of Rs 8,300 crore during 2017-18 and equalled total funds flowing into India between 2000 to 2017.”

The TOI report notes that the allegations weren’t substantiated with documentary evidence. Ramesh alleged that a hedge fund called GNY Asia was opened in November 2016—13 days after demonetisation—in the Cayman Islands with Vivek Doval as one of its director.