New Delhi: A Delhi court has closed the criminal defamation proceedings against Congress leader Jairam Ramesh after he tendered an apology to Vivek Doval, the son of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Saturday, December 19.
Vivek Doval had filed a criminal defamation complaint against The Caravan magazine and Ramesh for an article and a press conference based on it, respectively. On Saturday, Doval accepted Ramesh’s apology.
Ramesh told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta that he made several allegations against Doval in the “heat of the moment and that he should have verified them,” according to the report published by Bar and Bench.
Ramesh said his remarks were based on a news article and added that “some independent verification of the facts may have been in order”.
The case will continue against the magazine, whose editor Vinod K. Jose has said on Twitter that he stands by the story.
Politicians who want to apologise and shake hands, contrary to their public posturing, can do so. But Caravan stands by the Jan 2019 story it broke exposing the duplicity in the stand of NSA Doval while his son Vivek was busy opening a hedge fund company in the tax haven…1/2. https://t.co/bq2cg0N0Lh
— Vinod K. Jose (@vinodjose) December 19, 2020
…of Cayman Islands. The Caravan will continue to fight and defend the defamation case filed against it. We are not intimidated. 2/2. https://t.co/FStgxwFe6k
— Vinod K. Jose (@vinodjose) December 19, 2020
The Caravan, in an online report titled ‘The D Companies’, had said Vivek Doval “runs a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands”, which is “an established tax haven”, and it was “registered merely 13 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government demonetised all existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes in 2016”.
Jose wrote on Twitter, “Politicians who want to apologise and shake hands, contrary to their public posturing, can do so. But Caravan stands by the Jan 2019 story it broke…”
Doval had alleged that the contents of the article presented “no illegality” on his part, but that the entire narration was presented in a manner that suggested “wrongdoings” to the readers.
With regard to Ramesh, Doval’s complaint said the press conference addressed by the Congress leader went “beyond the mere narration in the article” and that he was already geared and armed to launch an attack, “merely waiting for the publication of the article”, which could then provide a “smokescreen to the otherwise targeted and deliberate attack on the reputation of the complainant and his family”.
In a backtrack, Ramesh has also volunteered to remove traces of the press conference he hosted.
“…The general elections were close and the questions raised in the article seemed appropriate for being highlighted in making certain insinuations against you (Vivek) and your family. Thus, I would like to offer my apologies to you and your family for any hurt the statements may have caused. I would also urge the INC to remove the press conference available on their website,” the former Union minister said.
(With PTI inputs)