Entrepreneur magazine says it will remove article carrying statements by Ashneer Grover against BharatPe

The US based Entrepreneur magazine assured the Delhi High Court on Friday that it will take down its cover story on Ashneer Grover in which he allegedly made defamatory statements against BharatPe..Entrepreneur's India edition had carried a cover story titled ‘Fraud or Framed? The Curious Case of Ashneer Grover’ in its June-July issue.The counsel appearing for the publication said that without prejudice to their rights and contentions, the story and the podcast will be removed from its website and social media platforms and that the magazine’s August issue will carry a corrigendum stating that the article was being withdrawn.“Impugned article and podcast shall be removed from the website and social media and the defendants (the magazine, its publisher and the journalist) shall publish a corrigendum in their forthcoming issue stating that views expressed in the impugned article are that of Defendant No 13 (Ashneer Grover) and not of defendants 1-12 (magazine, journalist and publishers) and since the matter is sub judice the defendants have withdrawn the impugned article,” the counsel told the Court. The same shall be done in one to two days, he added..The undertaking was given after Justice Jyoti Singh examined the article and remarked that it appeared defamatory on the face of it and should be removed.Justice Singh was dealing with a defamation suit filed by BharatPe against the magazine and Grover. The fintech firm stated that despite the earlier orders of the High Court where BharatPe and Grover had given an assurance that they will not use unparliamentary language against each other, Grover made similar allegations. Senior Advocate Amit Sibal appeared for BharatPe and said that allegations which were part of their earlier suit against Grover, have been repeated in the article.He said that Grover’s counsel in the previous suit had said that the social media posts in which these allegations were made have been removed but the same statements have now appeared in the magazine’s story.“When these guys [magazine] come to me [for comment], I give them a bland response. The same nature of content which were part of the earlier suit is now being unauthorisedly put up in the magazine. They [magazine] say they were not party to the earlier suit. Them not being a party to the prior suit is not the point, the submission is that the statement is false and defamatory,” the Senior Counsel submitted..The magazine’s counsel stated that it is not the publication or the journalist who has levelled these allegations, but Grover. He added that Grover even called them up and threatened that it should be published."Later, he called up and said we have some unauthorised call recording that we have used in our podcast and this should be removed. He has done a somersault," the magazine's counsel said. The Bench remarked that this may just be a cover up when he realised that the statements were in violation of court’s earlier orders.“This seems Janus-faced. You can’t accuse them of being dim. An idle mind is the devil's workshop,” Sibal quipped.Notably, Grover was not represented today before the Court..The Bench fissued summons on the suit and listed the case before joint registrar on August 28. The Court will hear the matter in November. .Senior Advocate Amit Sibal along with Trilegal's Anuj Berry appeared for BharatPe.