Indian court bans documentary on Adani, Modi

KOLKOTA:

An Indian court has ordered the takedown of an online documentary posted by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and billionaire Gautam Adani of cronyism, after Adani Enterprises sued, calling it defamatory. Adani’s flagship firm, Adani Enterprises, told the high court in the eastern city of Kolkata that the documentary, which garnered millions of views on social media in recent days, was riddled with false content and had prompted inquiries from some investors in the company, whom the court order did not name. The documentary “is not a news report or an account of proceedings. It is a dramatised narrative,” the court’s takedown order for YouTube, X and Meta issued late on Monday said. Adani Enterprises, Modi’s office and Bhatia did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did the social media companies. Modi’s opponents have often accused the prime minister of having close ties with Adani, saying the business tycoon has received favourable treatment over the years. The Indian government and the Adani group have repeatedly denied those allegations. In its challenge, Adani Enterprises told the court that it does not seek to restrain constructive criticism of government policy or of business concentration, but Bhatia had suppressed material facts, according to the court order. Bhatia, who is based in the US, wrote on his X account that the lawsuit demands 500 million rupees ($5.25 million) in damages. In one X post, he wrote: “Truth is on my side”. “I believe the documentary has rattled Adani Enterprises Limited and struck a nerve at the highest levels,” he wrote. Bhatia is the co-founder of the once-popular email service Hotmail, which he sold to Microsoft in 1997