Jay Amit Shah vs The Wire as it happened: Ahmedabad court shifts case to 16 October; businessman's lawyer fails to turn up

The Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate's court on Wednesday would hear the plea by Jay Amit Shah, son of BJP national president Amit Shah, who had on Monday approached the court to file a defamation suit against seven entities.

File image of BJP chief Amit Shah with son Jay Amit Shah. AFP

According to a report in The Indian Express, the seven respondents are the author of the article Rohini Singh, founding editors of the news portal Siddarth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and MK Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and the Foundation for Independent Journalism, the non-profit company that publishes The Wire.

The Wire had on 8 October published an article The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah by Rohini stating that turnover of Amit Shah's son Jay had increased manifold within a year of Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister of India in 2014. The article claimed that the revenue of Jay’s company had jumped from mere Rs 50,000 to over Rs 80 crore in a single year and that his firm, whose business was chiefly stock trading, turned to windmill generation with public sector entity loan.

Jay filed his affidavit in court No. 13 of additional chief metropolitan magistrate SK Gadhvi, who later ordered a court of enquiry under Section 202 of Criminal Procedure Code. The section calls for an enquiry into the case before the court is able to take a decision whether there are sufficient grounds for the case to be heard. The judge had posted the case for hearing on Wednesday at 3 pm and asked the complainant to produce witnesses on his behalf.

Jay's contention

Jay on his part has stated that as a BTech from Nirma University, he enjoys an "excellent reputation" in society in general and the business community in particular and also for being a self-made and an honest businessman. The application stated that Jay is actively involved in several social and cultural activities, apart from being secretary of Gujarat Cricket Association and member of the finance committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

In his complaint, Jay claimed that the accused had "wilfully" and "fraudulently" tampered with the evidence. "The article is well-thoughout, well-planned and well-executed conspiracy against the complainant and dignitaries mentioned in the article," the complaint read.

Jay’s lawyer SV Raju had claimed that the write up was changed unlawfully and that they did not carry the information provided by them in exact format.

The BJP leaders, including Union Railways minister Piyush Goyal and Home Minister Rajnath Singh have defended Jay Shah, even as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took potshots at BJP saying that BJP's campaign of Beti Bachao (Save the girl child) now appears to have turned in to the campaign about Beta Bachao (Save the son).