Jairam Ramesh apologises to Vivek Doval in defamation case, says may have gone overboard

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday tendered an apology to Vivek Doval, the son of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, before a Delhi court in connection with a criminal defamation case in January last year. Vivek Doval had filed a defamation case against Ramesh and Caravan Magazine for their alleged defamatory statements and articles against him. He has accepted Ramesh’s apology.

Vivek Doval had filed the defamation case against Ramesh, as well as The Caravan and journalist Kaushal Shroff, after the article The D Companies was published in the magazine. The court had taken cognizance of Doval’s criminal defamation complaint in January 2019 and Ramesh was granted bail in May 2019. Defamation proceedings against The Caravan and Shroff will continue.

Ramesh said while tendering the apology that his remarks were based on a news article and said “perhaps some independent verification may have been in order.” The matter was heard by additional chief metropolitan magistrate Sachin Gupta on Saturday.

The Congress leader had, in a press conference on January 17, 2019, made certain statements against Vivek Doval, his family and his business venture GNA Asia Fund. “I understand these statements have hurt you deeply. 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. However, 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,” Ramesh said in his letter to Vivek.

“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,” he added.