Journalist Ravi Nair withdraws plea before Supreme Court against FIR over LIC-Adani investments article

Journalist Ravi Nair on Wednesday withdrew his plea before the Supreme Court challenging a cheating and forgery case registered against him by the Gujarat Police in connection with an article he co-authored for The Washington Post about the Adani Group [Ravi Nair vs. Union of India].

The concerned article reportedly alleged that the Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) investments in Adani Group companies were influenced by the government.

When the petition by Nair came up before a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta on Wednesday, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Nair, said that he has advised his client to withdraw the petition.

“I have advised my client. As and when a chargesheet is filed, we will raise all these points,” submitted Sibal.

The Court subsequently recorded that Sibal sought permission to withdraw the petition and the same was being allowed.

"Mr Kapil Sibal states that this petition may be dismissed as withdrawn leaving it open for the petitioner to raise his grievances at the appropriate stage before the appropriate forum," ordered the Court.

The case arose from summons issued to Nair by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch for a preliminary inquiry into a report he co-authored for The Washington Post titled “India’s $3.9 billion plan to help Modi’s mogul ally after US charges.”

The article claimed that internal documents showed Indian officials had drafted and pushed through a proposal to steer roughly $3.9 billion in investments to businesses of billionaire Gautam Adani from the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), a State-owned insurer.

According to the report, the proposal involved investing billions in corporate bonds issued by Adani Group companies and increasing LIC’s equity stakes in several subsidiaries. The article suggested that the plan was intended to signal confidence in the conglomerate at a time when it was facing financial pressures and legal scrutiny abroad.

The report also referred to criminal charges filed by US authorities against Adani in 2024, as well as earlier allegations made by the now-defunct short-seller Hindenburg Research, accusing the group of stock manipulation and financial irregularities. The Adani Group has denied these allegations.

Following the publication of the report, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch issued summons to Nair as part of a preliminary inquiry.

Nair subsequently moved the Supreme Court under Article 32, challenging the summons.

The Supreme Court on March 16 refused to entertain the plea and asked Nair to approach the Gujarat High Court first.

Meanwhile, a first information report was registered against Nair who then approached the Gujarat High Court to quash the same.

The plea was rejected by the High Court prompting him to approach the Supreme Court.

Pertinently, Nair was recently convicted by a Gujarat court in a separate criminal defamation case filed by the Adani Group.

In that case, the court found that a series of tweets and online articles published by Nair accusing the Adani Group of cronyism, corruption and unethical practices crossed the line from criticism into criminal defamation.

The court held that the allegations were presented as statements of fact without verification and were capable of harming the company’s reputation.

Nair was sentenced to one year of simple imprisonment and fined ₹5,000 in that case.

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