Five Devices Seized From Journalists Ravi Nair, Sachi Hegde and Nair’s Son, No Hash Value Provided

Ravi Nair had co-authored a story for The Washington Post over LIC being directed by the Union government to invest up to $3.9 billion in the Adani group, which led to an FIR being filed against him in Gujarat.

The Wire Staff

five devices seized from journalists ravi nair sachi hegde and nair’s son no hash value provided

Journalist Ravi Nair.

New Delhi: Independent journalist Ravi Nair had his device taken away by the Gujarat police on Monday (August 17).

The police was acting in pursuance of a search warrant issued by the Ahmedabad magistrate’s court, authorising the police to search his premises and if necessary, “seize the devices safely”. But the Gujarat police also seized devices from Nair’s son’s and his colleague Sachi Hegde, taking away her laptop and iPad only because she happened to be at Nair’s Delhi residence when they swooped down there. Neither Hegde nor Nair’s son are accused or named anywhere in the matter.

The developments took place a week after the Gujarat high court refused to quash the FIR for alleged ‘forgery’ against journalist Ravi Nair. This FIR was registered at the instance of Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd. over a Washington Post news story alleging that the LIC made investments in the Adani Group on the instructions of the Union government.

Nair was in Kerala when the Gujarat police raided him. His colleague, Hegde, happened to be at Nair’s Delhi residence at the time of the police making a visit. None of the three were provided with hash values for their five seized devices. This is in contravention of the Supreme Court’s nudge for guidelines over seized devices. On November 7, 2023, while hearing a petition by the Foundation for Media Professionals, the Supreme Court had asked the Union to frame guidelines on this point, and observed that uncontrolled power to access devices of journalists was unacceptable.

An FIR based on a complaint filed by an Adani employee, on behalf of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) on May 31, 2026 had alleged that Nair “wrote and posted false and fabricated information stating that LIC had invested USD 3.9 billion in the Adani Group of Companies”. The employee, Dushyant Joshi, has alleged in his police complaint that “neither LIC of India nor the Department of Financial Services had issued, prepared, exchanged, or circulated any document whatsoever relating to the matter in question”. His charge is that “the accused relied upon certain documents which were false, forged, fabricated, and created/manipulated, and used the same as genuine”.

Last year, on October 24, The Washington Post had carried an article co-authored by journalists Pranshu Verma and Ravi Nair on the Government of India and the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) directing investments of public funds (approximately $3.9 billion) into companies belonging to the Adani Group.

LIC posted a tweet the next day saying "LIC denies false reports by The Washington Post, reaffirming that all investments are made with integrity and due diligence."

Nair’s plea was that “mere denial by the LIC of the reports published by the petitioner in the Washington Post, would not make the petitioner liable for the offence alleged against him in the FIR and also mere denial of the facts narrated in the Article by the LIC, would not make the documents, based upon which, the article was published by the petitioner in the Washington Post, forged, and therefore, the petitioner herein cannot be prosecuted for the offence in question.”

This article went live on August seventeenth, two thousand twenty six, at fifty minutes past nine at night.

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