In a massive development in Vivek Doval’s defamation suit against senior Congress leader and former Union minister from the UPA regime Jairam Ramesh, along with Caravan (magazine), the court has given a bail to Caravan’s editor and the author on personal bonds of Rs 20,000 each however, the court has refused to give relief to Jairam Ramesh, who had sought exemption from personal appearances in the courts.
Vivek had filed a criminal defamation suit in the wake of an article published in the caravan ‘ The D-Companies’ which alleged that NSA Ajit Doval’s son Vivek Doval’s ran a hedge fund in the tax haven of Cayman Islands and that he has a number of cross-holding business interests with his elder brother, linking this “web” with demonetization.
Following the article Senior Congress leader and former Union minister in UPA regime Jairam Ramesh had repeated the allegations in a press conference. The Article was published on January 16, and the criminal defamation complaint was files on January 22 at Patiala House court. Vivek Doval had recorded his statement on January 30.
Vivek Doval has sued Ramesh and the publication for having “deliberately maligned and defamed” him “seemingly to settle scores with his father”. Amit Sharma and Nikhil Kapoor, Vivek Doval’s partners’ statements were also recorded.
Vivek in an interview given to My Nation had refuted all the allegations as “completely baseless” he also added “The entire timeline of my fund, the formal set-up of which began in March 2016 and concluded in December 2016 has been submitted to the court. The vindictiveness is demonstrated by trying to link a legitimate fund manager activity in London to demonetisation in India in November 2016 just because of the word Doval in my name,” Vivek told MyNation.
On allegations of links with his brothers firm, Vivek said: “Since mine is a start-up and it is costlier in Singapore to recruit people for research work, my brother just lent me his office premises that I could use here in India and use Indian manpower for research.”
Claiming that his fund was KYC-ed by several top financial institutions Vivek said, “Nomura International was chosen as the prime broker for the Fund while Wells Fargo International (now called the SS&C) was chosen as the administrator. DBS Bank of Singapore was selected for banking services to the Fund while Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) was chosen as the auditor of the Fund. It is clear that only the most reputed and proficient service providers were gotten on board by the Fund. It is also pertinent to emphasize here that most of the service providers adopt the strictest of KYC norms and are known for their compliance records,”.