NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has reserved its order on whether to summon Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, The Caravan magazine, and its reporter as accused in a defamation plea filed by NSA Ajit Doval’s son Vivek against the magazine.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said on Friday that the order on whether to summon them as accused would be passed on March 2. In his complaint, Vivek had said that the magazine and Ramesh had attempted to “deliberately malign and defame” him to “settle scores with his father”.The Caravan had alleged that Vivek Doval “runs a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands,” which is “an established tax haven”.
According to the complaint, Ramesh held a press conference on January 17 reiterating the “baseless and unfounded facts” as narrated in the article.
On February 11, two witnesses had given court statements in support of the defamation complaint, saying the published article, and the use of its content by Ramesh, had resulted in “unrest” among investors in Vivek’s firm.Vivek’s friend Nikhil Kapur, and business partner Amit Sharma had recorded their statements before the court, saying that the allegations levelled in the article were false.
On January 30, Vivek had recorded his statement before the court, saying that the allegations levelled by the magazine and later repeated by Jairam Ramesh in a press conference were “baseless” and “false” and had damaged his reputation.
‘Nothing illegal’
According to Vivek Doval’s complaint, the contents of the article in The Caravan present “no illegality” on his part, but the entire narration had been presented in a manner that suggests wrongdoing.