Alleging that The Caravan’s article ‘The D Companies’ was replete with random and wrong facts, Vivek Doval, son of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, on Monday submitted before a Delhi court that it was defamatory and had tarnished his and his father’s reputation. The article was published in January 2016.
Mr. Vivek was recording his evidence in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal in a defamation case filed by him against the magazine, its editor-in-chief Paresh Nath, reporter Kaushal Shroff and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
“The article in a very systematic way creates inferences and innuendos which make readers think that Vivek Doval and his family are involved in illegal activities such as money laundering and round tripping of the Capital,” he submitted.
Dismisses allegations
“My father [Ajit Doval] is my hero... When I came back to Delhi, I was confronted by my father on the veracity of these utterances. I broke down. I felt helpless. My father has no relation with the company,” he further submitted.
The Congress leader reiterated the allegations at a press conference and people posted insulting remarks against Mr. Vivek’s family in the comment box of the presser’s video uploaded on Youtube.
On conclusion of his evidence, the court fixed July 10 as the date for his cross-examination by counsel for the accused.
The court had in April granted bail to all the accused persons on their appearance following issuance of summons.
Summoning them, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate had said: “Jairam Ramesh; Paresh Nath, the editor-in-chief of The Caravan and Kaushal Shroff, the author of the alleged defamatory article in the magazine, are summoned for commission of offence of defamation under Section 500 of the IPC.”
Vivek’s complaint
In his complaint, Mr. Vivek said that the accused linked his Cayman Islands-based hedge fund GNY Asia to demonetisation and money laundering. Thus, they deliberately maligned and defamed him, seemingly to settle scores with his father.
