AHMEDABAD: After BJP national chief Amit Shah ’s son Jay Shah , now the Adani Group has filed a criminal defamation case against the news portal The Wire and its journalists in a magisterial court here on Thursday.

Adani Petronet (Dahej) Port Pvt Ltd has accused Foundation for Independent Journalists which runs The Wire, and six of its journalists, of deliberately publishing a defamatory article on its website to malign the company’s image. It has accused the journalists of defamation and criminal conspiracy on the ground that they have an ostensible close nexus to the defamatory article.

The complaint stated that Foundation had deliberately published the defamatory article to create disturbance amongst the investors and financial institutions towards the complainant (Adani Petronet) and Adani Group as a whole. The complainant has taken exception to seven different statements of the article titled ‘Does it make economic sense for IOC and GAIL to invest in Adani’s LNG terminals?’.

Taking exception to the statement, the company stated, “The accused wrongly associate the complainant with the decision of IOC and GAIL India to invest in Adani's LNG terminals. None of such terminals are owned, operated or managed by the complainant. The complainant has nothing to do with the decision of IOC and GAIL India to invest in Adani’s LNG Terminals. Such terminals are part of Mundra and Dhamra projects. They are being implemented by separate companies (special purpose vehicle) and not by the complainant.”

Some of the other statements to which the company has objected and termed them defamatory and factually wrong are – “PSUs will help the ‘heavily indebted Adani group’ to make further investments”, “how can a PSU justify such a big stake thus indirectly helping fund the private sector company which is already highly leveraged with Banks?” and “The Adani group's outstanding debts have shot up to Rs 72,000 crore, the highest for any corporate group in the country”. The court has posted further proceedings on this complaint next week.

