Jay Amit Shah files defamation case against news website

The news portal, in its report said that a company owned by Jay Shah saw a huge rise in its turnover after the BJP came to power in 2014.

Jay Amit Shah, the son of BJP chief Amit Shah has filed a criminal defamation case in a metropolitan court here against a news portal over a report claiming his firm's turnover grew exponentially after the party came to power in 2014.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S K Gadhvi ordered a court inquiry into the matter under CrPC section 302.

In his application, Shah prayed for, "criminal action against the respondents for defaming and tarnishing the reputation of the complainant through an article, which is scandalous, frivolous, misleading, derogatory, libelous and consisting of several defamatory statements."

The seven respondents in the case are the author of the article Rohini Singh, founding editors of the news portal Siddarth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M K Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and the Foundation for Independent Journalism, the non-profit company that publishes the website.

The case has been filed under IPC sections 500 (defamation), 109 (abetment), 39 (voluntarily cause grievous hurt) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy).

The news portal, in its report said that a company owned by Jay Shah saw a huge rise in its turnover after the BJP came to power in 2014. However, Jay Shah had rejected the charge, insisting the story was "false, derogatory and defamatory".

OneIndia News