New Delhi: A court in Kutch (Gujarat) has issued an arrest warrant against senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in connection with a 2017 defamation suit filed by the Adani Group.
The defamation suit filed against Thakurta pertains to an article about the Adani Group.
The Article in question was co-authored by Thakurta, when he was the Editor of Economic and Political Weekly, alleging that Modi government tweaked rules which ultimately led to Adani Group reaping a benefit of Rs 500 crore.
According to Live Law, the article was first published on EPW, and later republished by The Wire, after Sameeksha Trust, which runs the EPW, took down the article/report and also prompted Thakurta to resign as the editor of EPW.
“…accused stands charged with complaint under section 500 of IPC. You are hereby directed to arrest the said accused and to produce him before me,” Judicial Magistrate Pradeep Soni said in a direction to the Nizamuddin police.
Thakurta said he is not aware of the court order and directed queries to his lawyer.
“We haven”t received any intimation (from the court). This information (on arrest warrant) has come to us from media,” his lawyer Anand Yagnik said.
He further said the Adani Group had withdrawn complaints against everybody, including the editor but not against the author.
“The magazine (which published the article) is not responsible (for criminal defamation), the case against co-author has been withdrawn but you don”t withdraw the complaint against the author,” he said. “We have moved a discharge application.”
