Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against several media outlets for allegedly false news reports linking him to the indictment proceedings against the Adani Group in the United States, Bar and Bench reported on Monday.
The court on Monday issued summons to the media outlets TV Today Network (AajTak News), Eenadu Publication, ABN News and Andhra Jyothi in the matter. The suit also named Google as a defendant, alleging that the platform was used to spread and intensify defamatory content.
On Tuesday, Justice Subramonium Prasad issued notice on the YSR Congress Party chief’s application seeking an interim injunction order in the matter. He has sought the removal of the articles, Live Law reported.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on December 16.
On November 20, the US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District in New York indicted Gautam Adani, who is the chairperson of the Adani Group, in a $265 million bribery and fraud case.
In a filing, the United States’ markets regulator Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Andhra Pradesh’s previous YSR Congress government had been paid or promised a bribe of nearly $200 million by Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, in exchange for power supply agreements.
The regulatory body claimed that Gautam Adani met Reddy in August 2021 to discuss the state not having entered into a power supply agreement with Solar Energy Corporation of India and asked about the “incentives” that would push the government to do so.
It alleged that Sagar Adani had also met the former chief minister on September 12, 2021. An Adani Group company, Adani Green, along with another company Azure Power, stood to benefit from such an agreement, claimed the regulatory body.
In his defamation suit in the court, Reddy claimed that the articles by the media houses falsely claimed that he had taken or was promised bribes from the Adani Group, in exchange for solar power supply agreements in Andhra Pradesh during his government’s tenure.
“These allegations are per se defamatory,” the suit contended, according to Live Law. “These are intended to falsely convey to public that the plaintiff [Reddy] is somehow involved in the purported corruption schemes which are under investigation of US authorities.”
Reddy’s counsel also argued that their client had never been summoned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and had no connection to the investigation conducted by United States authorities.
Reddy had previously publicly rejected the allegations and said that “incentives were never offered to me by anyone, nor can anyone dare to do so”. He had also noted that his name was not mentioned in the indictment documents filed in a United States court.
The document being referred to by Reddy had only identified the high-ranking official in Andhra Pradesh who allegedly personally met Gautam Adani as “Foreign Official #1” and does not reveal the name of the official.
However, the complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in November, of which Scroll and The News Minute have a copy, stated that the official was the “chief minister of Andhra Pradesh”, who at the time was Reddy.
Also read:
- Gautam Adani met ex Andhra CM Jagan Reddy to offer $200 million bribe, alleges US securities panel
- Explainer: What does US law say about Adani’s indictment – and can he be charged in India?
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