Jagan Mohan Reddy moves Delhi High Court against media for reports linking him to Adani indictment

The Delhi High Court on Monday issued summons on a defamation suit filed by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy against various media house for articles linking him to the indictment proceedings against Adani Group in the United States [YS Jagan Mohan Reddy vs. Ushodaya Enterprises Private Limited & Ors]..Prominent media houses including TV Today Network (AajTak News), Eenadu Publications, ABN News and Andra Jyoti have been made party to the suit.Google has also been made a party to the suit, stating that it is being used for spreading and intensifying the defamatory and scandalous content against Reddy.Justice Subramonium Prasad also issued notice on Reddy’s application seeking takedown of the defamatory articles.The Court also clarified that any further publication “made after the date of the order will be considered published with notice of the suit and subject to the consequences thereof.”.According to media reports, the US agencies have alleged that a major chunk of bribery for solar power purchase agreements from Adani had gone to an Andhra Pradesh government official..Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Reddy, argued that articles by several media houses have falsely insinuated that Reddy had taken bribe from Gautam Adani for securing solar power purchase agreements, which are under focus in the probe by US authorities.It was submitted that Reddy has never been summoned by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in this regard and has nothing do with the alleged investigation carried out by the US authorities.“The insinuations against the Plaintiff inter alia of receiving bribes, indulging in corruption, extending favours or misusing his position as the chief minister are completely false and have been made with the sole intent of lowering his reputation,” Reddy's plea said. Reddy alleged that the repeated publications by media houses are aimed at reaching a wide audience.“This false coverage seeks to create a negative perception of the Plaintiff, making it difficult for him to counteract the damaging narratives,” the plea added..Reddy has sought ₹100 crore as damages and has also sought an injunction.Reddy has further sought dynamic injunction, directions to restrain the media houses from any further publication and to direct immediate takedown of the articles, tweets, retweets, and also to publish an unconditional apology to Reddy.The matter will be heard next on December 16 for consideration of the interim relief..Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan with Advocates Amit Agrawal, Sahil Raveen, Rahul Kukreja, Sana Jain, Abhikaran Deo Agrawal, Anshul Gondale, Shreedhar Kale, AdvocatesAdvocates Hrishikesh Baruah, Anurag Mishra and Utkarsh Dwivedi appeared for Ushodaya Enterprises.Advocates Mamta Rani Jha, Rohan Ahuja, Shruttima Ehersa and Aiswarya Debadarshini appeared for Google.