Congress leader Jairam Ramesh records statement in Delhi court in defamation case

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday submitted before a Delhi court a written statement in the defamation case filed against him and the Caravan magazine by Vivek Doval, the son of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Ramesh today submitted his written statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which pertains to the examination of the accused, in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja.

The court posted the matter for recording defence evidence on April 9.

On January 21 last year, Vivek Doval had filed a criminal defamation case against Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, Caravan magazine reporter Kaushal Shroff and its editor Paresh Nath, contending that they had caused "irreparable damage" to his reputation "through calculated insinuations and innuendos".

An article in the Caravan magazine had allegedly claimed that Vivek Doval ran a hedge fund whose promoters were of dubious antecedents.

Vivek had earlier told the court, "The article creates an inference that Vivek Doval and family are involved in illegal activities such as money laundering, round-tripping of capital, violating financial regulation and connections to foreign royal families."

The court had granted bail to the accused Congress leader in the matter in May last year.