New Delhi: Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications (RCom) appears to have dropped a defamation lawsuit against the Financial Times, an international daily newspaper based out of London.
According to a report put out by the publication, RCom had sued two of the newspaper’s journalists over reporting the difficulties that Ambani’s business had been facing.
The case filed by RCom, which demanded a whopping $1.1 billion in damages, has now been withdrawn.
“RCom applied and was allowed to withdraw its claim.The court granted a refund of its court fees, in accordance with court rules, while both sides will bear their own legal costs. The company had named two FT journalists as defendants, though proceedings were not formally served on them,” the financial publication noted.
“The lawsuit was filed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad last year over an FT report on a now-abandoned agreement by RCom to sell most of its telecoms assets to rival operator Jio, part of Mr Ambani’s elder brother Mukesh’s group.” The report highlighted the brothers’ contrasting fortunes, it added.
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In 2018, businesses controlled by Anil Ambani filed a dizzying array of defamation lawsuits against a number of media organisations, journalists and Opposition politicians.
Some of the lawsuits, as The Wire has reported, have to do with reportage on Reliance Defence and the controversial Rafale deal. The damages that have been claimed in these lawsuits drew media attention for their scale and scope (NDTV- Rs 10,000 Crore, The Citizen – Rs 7,000 crore, National Herald – Rs 5,000 crore).
Others, such as the cases filed against The Financial Express, The Week and The Economic Times revolved around coverage of Anil Ambani’s shifting fortunes and the business woes of RCom.
In May 2019, a handful of days before the 2019 Lok Sabha election results were announced, the Reliance group decided to withdraw the Rs 5,000-crore civil defamation cases it had filed against Congress leaders and the National Herald newspaper over their statements and coverage on the Rafale fighter jet deal.
At the time, Reliance defended its stance by saying that the allegedly defamatory statements made by certain individuals and corporate bodies with regard to the Rafale deal were made for “political purposes”
A few Anil Ambani-owned companies have also filed defamation cases against The Wire, one of which has demanded Rs 6,000 crore in damages over a video discussion titled ‘Rafale Deal: Understanding the Controversy”. The participants in that programme included senior defence journalist Ajai Shukla and The Wire’s founding editor M.K. Venu.