[Algo Legal defamation suit] I am not here to usurp land, I do my business as per Indian laws: Poovayya for Sequoia

A Bengaluru court on Tuesday was witness to arguments by Senior Advocates in the defamation suit filed by Algo Legal and its founder Sandeep Kapoor against Sequoia, Twitter and several media outlets..Submissions were made before City Civil and Sessions Judge MH Annayyaanavar, who reserved orders in the matter..Appearing for Sequoia, Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya insisted that he be allowed to argue before an interim order is passed.Poovayya said that he is entitled to file his pleadings both in interim application and in plaint.He also defended the act of calling out the lawyer (Kapoor). "If there is one lawyer who is a crook, then it is in the interest of the bar that it is called out. In such an event there is no question of injunction," he contended. Representing Algo Legal and Sandeep Kapoor, Senior Advocate Udaya Holla pressed for an interim order and argued,"These funds come here and now making allegations. Is it their argument they will go ahead with defamatory statements...Reputation cannot be sullied. Innuendo is evident." He also drew comparisons between Sequoia and East India Company.Responding to Holla’s comparison of Sequoia with the East India Company, Poovayya said,"I am not here to usurp land. I do my business here as per Indian laws, pay my taxes here. And the plaintiff was my employee for ten years whose kitchen fire burned because of me."Advocate Manu Kulkarni appearing for Twitter submitted that an intermediary cannot be held liable for third part posts made via its platform. "I am an intermediary. Can injunction be granted against me? There is a specific provision on this. Section 79 of IT which exempts me from third party information or communication," Kulkarni said..Even as counsel for the media companies asked to be heard before an interim order is passed against them, Holla said,"I don’t want dissemination of defamatory content. Let them hold their hands.".Khaitan & Co's Senior Partner Ajay Bhargava and Partner Nikhilesh Rao appeared for HT Media and E Eighteen.com Limited.Sequoia was represented by Senior Partner at AZB & Partners, Aditya Vikram Bhat.Advocate Manu Kulkarni and Partner at Poovayya & Co., Shravanth Arya Tandra represented Twitter..The parties arraigned in the suit include HT Media Limited (owner of Hindustan Times and other publications) Bennett Coleman (owner of Times of India, Economic Times and others), the owners of News18, journalists from these publications, and Twitter. The media companies and other respondents had published news articles reporting that Sequoia Capital had cut ties with Algo Legal after Kapoor apparently threatened some of its portfolio companies..Algo Legal is a law firm founded by Kapoor, who was formerly General Counsel at Sequoia Capital. As per his LinkedIn profile, worked at Sequoia for almost nine years till 2019, before he set up Algo Legal.As per an email, Sequoia informed its portfolio companies that “concerning incidents” involving Algo Legal were found after a recent investigation.Kapoor allegedly threatened some of the Sequoia portfolio companies with cases for violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and investigations by the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and other government agencies.It was further alleged that Kapoor, while taking advantage of his earlier position as Director Legal of Sequoia, was arm-twisting these portfolio companies to make them hire his firm (Algo Legal) or related entities for all legal work.