MUMBAI: On August 17, 1993, The Daily, a now defunct tabloid, published a string of reports about Nusli Wadia , spread over the entire front and back pages of the newspaper. The stories alleged that Wadia, grandson of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and chairman of Bombay Dyeing, was a Pakistani spy, having links with Dawood Ibrahim , and was involved in smuggling drugs and laundering money through a bank in Nepal. One of the stories also talked about his alleged association with Anita Ayub, a Pakistani starlet. This was five months after the Bombay serial blasts whose perpetrators were widely believed to have fled to Pakistan.In October 1993, Wadia, who was then rebuilding his textile business and planning his moves to take control of Britannia , filed civil and criminal defamation suits against Rajiv K Bajaj, managing editor Phiroze J Dastur, printer and publisher Mohan Nair, and Daily Printing & Allied Enterprises, the corporate entity which owned ‘Daily’. Morarka’s company Nalanda Exports appointed advocates to represent the defendants.Like most defamation cases, this too would have languished and been forgotten. But it didn’t. Last week — more than two decades since the suits were filed — Bajaj, the then editor of The Daily, filed an affidavit before the Bombay High Court, with allegations that revived memories of the most celebrated battle in Corporate India.In his affidavit filed on the civil defamation case, Bajaj alleged that the reports which appeared in The Daily were parts of an underlying business deal between Kamal Morarka —the owner of the newspaper and head of the construction and engineering company Gannon Dunkerley — and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). The long and bitter tussle between Dhirubhai Ambani , RIL’s founder and Nusli Wadia is part of corporate history. According to Bajaj’s allegations, he was pushed into carrying the reports by Anthony (aka Tony) Jesudasan and Deepak Neogi, who worked as PR officials of the undivided Reliance group, and businessman Vijay Kalantri, who was close to Morarka and often passed on instructions on his behalf. Bajaj alleges that subsequent to the publication of the reports, Gannon Dunkerley received several orders from Reliance.When contacted by ET, both Morarka and Kalantri categorically denied the allegations while Jesudasan and Neogi (who later left Reliance Industries to join the Anil Ambai groop) did not comment. "I am not aware of this affidavit but I am appalled to hear from you that Rajiv Bajaj has said this in the affidavit. This is absolutely untrue. I have never interfered with the editorial functions of my newspapers though I have always given my full support to my editors and this is to the knowledge of Rajiv Bajaj," said Morarka in an email to ET.Kalantri, the chairman and MD of Balaji Infra Projects and Dighi Port, said (in an email), "This disclosure looks highly imaginative and I do not recall any such discussion or facilitation nor I had anything to do with The Daily." Wadia group legal head Parveen Mahtani did not respond to text messages from ET. ET’s email to a spokesman for Reliance Industries also went unanswered till the time of going to Press.The sequence of events, as alleged by Bajaj, is outlined in the affidavit: A day before the reports were published, Kalantri visited Bajaj’s Daily office and handed him papers signed by 72 members of Parliament accusing Nusli Wadia of having multiple passports and being a drug dealer. Bajaj was told that the papers, purported to be findings of the Intelligence Bureau, were received from the office of Reliance Industries and had been handed over to the then home minister Shankar Rao Chavhan. Neogi, who was then reporting to Jesudasan, handed over the articles, along with the headings and blurbs, with the instruction that the pieces should be carried ad litteram. Jesudasan, according to Bajaj, told him that if he did not publish the articles someone else in the Daily would. Bajaj, whose wife Amita Nayar Bajaj was then the Delhi Bureau Chief of The Afternoon, another paper controlled by Morarka, alleges that there were hints that he could get into trouble if he did follow the instructions. Jesudasan and Neogi are not respondents in the case filed by Wadia.As per the affidavit, a few days after the reports appeared, Kalantri asked Bajaj to accompany him for a meeting with Dhirubhai Ambani at the Reliance office in Maker IV, Nariman Point. Bajaj alleges that the elder Ambani complimented him on the articles. ET could not independently substantiate or verify any of the allegations by Bajaj who refused to respond to text message. Going by the affidavit, the obvious questions that crops up are: first, why did Bajaj, as editor, let Reliance officials and Kalantri allegedly dictate the terms? second, what made Bajaj wait so long to come out with what he claims are the "true facts that led to publication of the articles"?According to the affidavit, Bajaj, who was in financial difficulties at the time of the publication of the story, was assured that his wife and daughter, who were staying in Delhi then, would join him in Mumbai once the newspaper runs the stories. Bajaj, who is no longer receiving any legal support from his former employer, finally filed the affidavit on the civil matter after reading a newspaper report that the High Court has reopened the criminal defamation case after 15 years. It was perhaps then that he panicked. In the affidavit Bajaj said he is willing to depose before the court and give evidence.