Caravan defamation case: Delhi court reserves order on whether to summon Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi [India], Feb 22 (ANI): A Delhi court on Friday reserved order on whether to summon Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, Editor of Caravan Magazine and reporter Kaushal Shroff in a defamation plea filed by NSA Ajit Doval's son Vivek Doval against the magazine.
The order will be passed on March 2.
During the hearing, Vivek's counsel alleged that the presser held by Ramesh last month "clearly harmed and damaged the reputation of the complainant and his family".
"The article is circulated to thousands of numbers through various social media platforms. Forwarding it means accepting the message and endorsing it, which harms the image and reputation of the complainant. Within a short span, this item has been reiterated hundreds of time. People who do not have technical knowledge will always think otherwise," the counsel said.
The counsel added that the transcript of Ramesh's press conference was uploaded and this goes on to show the "nature of malice" in the act.
On January 21, Vivek had filed a criminal defamation case against Ramesh and two journalists, contending that they had caused “irreparable damage” to his reputation “through calculated insinuations and innuendos.”
Vivek has contended that Ramesh and the two journalists “have committed the offence of defamation punishable under Section 500 of IPC (which provides for simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both) read with Section 120-B IPC (criminal conspiracy).
Vivek, his business partner Amit Sharma and friend Nikhil Kapoor have already recorded their statements in connection to the matter.
Vivek had filed the complaint against the magazine for the alleged defamatory article and Ramesh for using the content to defame him on wrong facts. The Caravan article claimed that Vivek was running a hedge fund whose promoters are of dubious antecedents.
In his plea, Vivek, had alleged that the accused had deliberately maligned and defamed him just to settle scores with his father. (ANI)