Paranjoy Guha Thakurta issued arrest warrant in Adani defamation case

Gujarat: In connection with Adani defamation case, journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta has been issued an arrest warrant, on Tuesday, by a court in Kutch district, Gujarat. Adani group had filed a case against the journalist in the year 2017 for his article published in 'The Wire' about Special Economic Zone (SEZ) rules and alleged that the amended rules by the Centre enabled duty reimbursements for raw materials to Adani Power Ltd leading to a benefit of Rs 500 crores for the conglomerate.

Paranjoy's controversial article was taken down by 'The Economic and Political Weekly' where it was first published in June 2017 after the Adani group sent it a notice. Guha resigned from EPW's editor position in protest.

However, the same article was re-published in The Wire on June 19th,2017. The Wire published two articles titled 'Did the Adani Group Evade Rs1000 Crore in Taxes?' and 'Modi Government's Rs 500 crore Bonanza to the Adani Group' exposing the nexus between the Centre and the Adani group.

Following this, the Adani group sent defamation notices to both The Wire and Guha. Adani group had earlier filed a defamation case against The Wire on an article titled "Does it make economic sense for IOC and GAIL to invest in Adani's LNG terminals?" by Noor Mohammed.

After a year, in July 2018, NR Joshi, the Additional Sessions Judge set aside the summons and complaint issued by magistrate citing "lack of cogent reasoning". The Group withdrew the case against The Wire in May 2019.

Meanwhile, Guha's lawyer told PTI, "We have not received any intimation. This information on the arrest warrant comes to us from media only." He also noted that the group took down cases against everybody but the journalist. They have filed a discharge application.