A Delhi court on Thursday granted bail to The Caravan editor-in-chief Paresh Nath and its reporter Kaushal Shroff in a defamation case filed by Vivek Doval, the son of National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal granted them bail when they appeared before the court on summons.
“Since the offence of defamation under Section 500 IPC is bailable in nature, both the accused are admitted on bail on furnishing personal bond and surety bond in the sum of ₹20,000 each. Bail bonds furnished and accepted,” Mr. Vishal said.
Mr. Vishal had summoned them and former Union Minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday.
However, Mr. Ramesh did not appear and sought exemption. The court allowed his plea and asked him to appear on May 9.
Summoning them, Mr. Vishal said: “Accordingly, 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.”
“The allegations by the respondents are prima facie defamatory and refer to complainant Vivek Doval, therefore, he is an aggrieved person within the meaning of Section 199 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to file this complainant. He has denied the allegations made against him, directly and otherwise, by the respondents as false and imaginary. These defamatory statements have been published, widely read and particularly by the witnesses examined who deposed that the reputation of the complainant was lowered in their estimation,” Mr. Vishal added.
In his complaint, Mr .Vivek said 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.
The accused persons levelled serious allegations of money laundering against the fund, which is his legitimate and ethical business venture, the complaint alleged. The complaint followed the publication of an article in The Caravan titled “The D-Companies” on January 16. Stating that not only the complainant, his elder brother and his companies were also maligned, the complaint said the article had been written in a manner that it raised apprehensions on the ventures of the complainant and related it to the demonetisation.