[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]The commercial empire of tycoon Gautam Adani is suing independent Indian journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in six different courts; he is not permitted to comment about the company or its owner. The US investment firm Hindenburg Research, whose explosive report on Adani Group last month set off a stock meltdown that reduced the value of the company by $120 billion, said that the corporation had long utilised the fear of legal action to shield itself from closer examination.
As a short-seller, Hindenburg not only monitors corporate misbehaviour but also generates money by placing bets on declining stock prices. The ports-to-power conglomerate, which operates all over the world, was charged with accounting fraud and stock manipulation, and it was further stated that “investors, media, citizens, and even politicians have been hesitant to speak out for fear of retaliation.”
After producing a number of reports on Adani that included charges a high-ranking court gave it preferential treatment, Thakurta, 67, was faced with six defamation proceedings, three of them criminal. If found guilty, he faces jail time and is forbidden from writing or speaking negatively about the company or its owner by a court order.
He informed AFP that “a gag order was placed on me.” “I was informed that I was unable to remark on Mr. Gautam Adani’s and his corporate conglomerate’s operations. I therefore don’t want to disobey the court.
The burden of paying legal fees and travelling to hearings in three states, according to his colleague Abir Dasgupta, who has been the target of three defamation lawsuits, “takes a toll on us physically and mentally.” “It consumes our time, has an impact on our families, and has resulted in time loss and economic loss for all of us.”
Once Hindenburg made its claims last month, Adani Group immediately began to do damage control. According to the short-research, seller’s the conglomerate used related-party transactions carried out through tax to artificially increase its market value.
The firm’s billionaire founder, who had previously been Asia’s richest man, fell in the global rich-list rankings as a result of the stock market reaction, albeit shares in the group’s listed firms have since stabilised. The business has vowed to sue Hindenburg and refutes the allegations.
Moreover, it has filed a lawsuit in Australia against environmental activist Ben Pennings, saying that his campaign against the company’s coal mining operation in Queensland cost them millions of dollars. An Adani subsidiary has filed criminal defamation lawsuits against two journalists from the channel CNBC TV18, alleging them of publishing “grossly nasty, defamatory, and misleading” news reports.
Adani Group, like all businesses, “retains the right to defend itself against defamatory, misleading, or false remarks,” a conglomerate representative told AFP. “Adani Group believes strongly in the freedom of the press. “Adani has occasionally used those privileges in the past. The group has consistently complied with all relevant legislation.
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