A Gujarat court on Thursday granted bail to journalist Ravi Nair in a criminal defamation case filed against him by the Adani Group.

Nair, who was convicted in the case earlier this year, was released on bail during the pendency of his appeal, but was again taken into custody on September 17 following the issuance of a non-bailable warrant against him for allegedly not appearing before the appellate court.

Principal and District Sessions Judge at Gandhinagar Ashish JS Malhotra today allowed his bail plea. He was represented by Advocate Abhik Chimni.

On Wednesday, the Gujarat High Court had refused to grant him any interim relief on his petition challenging the non-bailable warrant. He had separately moved the sessions court for regular bail.

In February, a magistrate convicted Nair in a criminal defamation case filed by the Adani Group in connection with a series of tweets and online articles accusing the conglomerate of numerous unethical practices. The Court ruled that the content went beyond fair criticism and amounted to criminal defamation. Adani Group had filed a criminal complaint in September 2021.

The group of companies alleged that between October 2020 and July 2021, Nair published multiple tweets from his X (formerly Twitter) handle and articles on a website called “adaniwatch.org”, accusing the Adani Group corruption, crony capitalism, manipulation of environmental laws, misuse of government agencies and unethical business practices.

Following his conviction, he filed an appeal before a sessions court to challenge the verdict delivered by the judicial magistrate. The Court released him on bail during the pendency of the appeal. However, since he failed to appear before court earlier this month, a non-bailable warrant was issued against him.

Nair then appeared before the sessions court and challenged the issuance of the non-bailable warrant. However, the Court rejected his plea and sent him to judicial custody on September 17.