Court records statement of two witnesses in Vivek Doval’s defamation case against The Caravan, Jairam Ramesh

The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) at Patiala House Court today recorded the statements of two witnesses in the ongoing defamation case filed by Vivek Doval against The Caravan and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.

Coming to the defense of Vivek Doval, his business partner Amit Sharma today told the court that the allegations of money laundering levelled against their hedge fund GNY Asia Fund, were false and mala fide.

“Since I have known Vivek and been an integral part of the Fund from the very beginning, I know these allegations are false“, he said.

He further deposed before Judge Samar Vishal,

“It is extremely difficult to explain the same to people who are not aware of the functioning of the industry or are not aware of the hard work that has gone into the setting up of the Fund.”

Sharma further clarified that Vivek’s brother Shaurya Doval had no business relation to the Fund. Claiming that he came to know that Ajit Doval was Vivek’s father only after he became the National Security Advisor, Sharma said,

“He made it very clear from the very beginning that his father or family background will not be used for any business  purpose.”

Sharma also stated that Vivek had no political ambition.

“Vivek is a person of integrity, has a value system consistent to mine, and a thorough professional.”

In the end, Sharma deposed that although there were no allegations against him in the Caravan article, he was a victim of the same.

“My professional career has been tarnished. Initially, I was very angry to know about the article and more so on the repercussion that it will have on my credentials and reputation in the market solely on account of our association with Vivek.“

He further added,

“There was a huge unrest amongst investors…They are even today of the view that irrespective of whether the allegations are true or false, Vivek must step down and someone else should take charge. They apprehend that he would be a continued target due to his family background in India.”

He also said that The Caravan never approached him for any questions regarding the Fund.

The second witness to depose today was Vivek Doval’s friend, Nikhil Kapur.

“After reading the article, I was disappointed because I assumed there was some truth in the article.”

He acknowledged that after Vivek explained that the entire article was published to malign him, he realised that “it was copy paste job and there was no merit in what was published.”

“Without doubt, Vivek is not involved in any of the things that were published…

Both Vivek and my father have worn uniform to serve the country… our moral compass is very high. This is the reason why we are good friends and I am confident that his conduct is beyond any doubt.

It is unfortunate that we always tend to believe what is published in the media…Even though stories have been published with clarifications from Vivek, some (friends) still believe otherwise”, he added.

Doval had filed the defamation suit after The Caravan published an article titled The D Companies, alleging that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s sons run a web of companies including a Cayman Islands hedge fund, even as their father demands a crackdown on tax havens.

Judge Samar Vishal had taken cognizance of Doval’s criminal defamation complaint against The Caravan, Jairam Ramesh and author of the article Kaushal Shroff on January 22.

In his statement before the Court, Vivek Doval claimed that the purpose behind the article and the press conference led by Ramesh was to run a “malicious campaign” against the Doval family.

Doval is represented by Advocate DP Singh.

The matter will be next heard on February 22 for pre-summoning arguments.