Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday tendered an apology to National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval’s son Vivek Doval in a defamation case filed against him.
Following the apology, a Delhi Court has closed the criminal defamation case against Ramesh. The case was filed by Vivek Doval against the Congress leader and Caravan magazine Editor-in-Chief Paresh Nath along with reporter Kaushal Shroff for damaging his reputation.
Titled ‘The D Companies’, the article in the magazine had allegedly claimed that Vivek Doval ran a hedge fund whose promoters were of dubious antecedents.
In the letter of apology, Ramesh wrote that he should have conducted independent verification on the facts of the articles before making accusations against him, his family and business in a press conference. The apology was accepted by Vivek Doval.
“I had conducted a press conference on 17 January 2019 making certain statements about you, your family and your business venture GNY Asia Fund. I understand these statements have hurt you deeply,” the letter read.
It added, “I want to clarify that these statements or accusations, were made drawing conclusions from an Article that was published the previous day in the Caravan magazine. As the case progressed, I realized that perhaps some independent verification may have been in order.”
The Congress leader said that the General Elections were close, and the questions raised in the article seemed appropriate for being highlighted in public. “In retrospect, I may have gone overboard in making certain insinuations against you and your family,” he added.
“Thus, I would like to offer my apologies to you and your family for any hurt the statements have caused. I would also urge the INC to remove the press conference from the press releases available on their website,” read the apology letter.
Notably, the case against Ramesh has been closed, but the defamation proceedings against the magazine and journalist Kaushal Shroff will continue.
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