Vivek Doval's defamation plea: Business partner Amit Sharma records statement before court

New Delhi, Feb 11: The son of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Vivek Doval's business partner Amit Sharma on Monday began recording statement at Delhi's Patiala House Court in defamation plea against 'The Caravan' magazine for an alleged defamatory article and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh for using that content.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval's son Vivek Doval had earlier filed a criminal defamation case against Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. The case was also filed against a news magazine.

The Caravan in its January 16 online write-up titled 'The D Companies' had said that Vivek Doval, "runs a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands" which is "an established tax haven" and 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". After the publication of the article, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh sought an investigation by the Reserve Bank of India into the hedge fund.

According to the complaint, Ramesh had held a press conference on January 17 reiterating the "baseless and unfounded facts" as narrated in the article.

He had alleged that the contents of the article present "no illegality" on his part, but the entire narration has been presented in a manner, which suggests "wrongdoings" to the readers.

With regard to Ramesh, the complaint said that the press conference addressed by him went "beyond the mere narration in the article" and that int said that the press conference addressed by him 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".

(with PTI inputs)