In a resounding slap in the face of those who seek to put curbs on press freedom, a Gujarat court has set aside a law suit filed against veteran journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, three journalists of the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) and The Wire for writing, publishing and republishing a story alleging that the Adani Group was receiving favours from the Modi Government.
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The court found no prima facie case for defamation as the article was written based on the material available. The court also observed that a questionnaire was sent to the Adani Group before the article was published.
The story titled Modi Government’s Rs 500 crore bonanza for the Adani Group, was authored by Guha Thakurta who was then the Editor in Chief of EPW, Abir Dasgupta, Advait Rao Palepu and Shinzani Jain and was first published in EPW on June 17, 2017. It was later reproduced in The Wire on June 19, 2017.
But the Adani Group filed suit and EPW took down the article. Guha Thakurta resigned in protest. But The Wire refused to take the story down. In December 2017, the court directed the removal of one sentence and an adverb from the article, and The Wire complied.