US-based businessman sues Indian media outlets for defamation, alleges being wrongly called 'conman'

NEW DELHI: A US-based businessman of Indian origin, one Gaurav Srivastava, has sued The Tribune, India Today, Startup Insider, Tumblr, and others, alleging that they defamed him by wrongly calling him a 'conman'.

A single-judge bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh of the Delhi High Court summoned The Tribune for its article titled 'How fake CIA agent Gaurav Srivastava tried to con his way to control a company'.

Srivastava claimed that the report, first published in The Tribune in December 2023 and reported on by other media houses, was a sponsored article published for the sole purpose of intentionally defaming him.

Srivastava has also included digital intermediaries and social media platforms like YouTube, Google, Yahoo, Meta, and Twitter (X) as parties to the plea and sought the takedown of the allegedly defamatory articles.

Pointing out the lack of evidence and verification by the media houses, Srivastava stated that they published the articles solely to enhance their revenues/viewership/circulations at the cost of Plaintiffs (Srivastavas) reputation.

Directing The Tribune to disclose the details of the alleged sponsor to the plaintiff (Srivastava), the Court posted the matter for further hearing in June.

The referred articles allege that Srivastava posed as an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and tried to con his way into controlling a company.

Further, they reported that due to the murky source of donations from him, US President Joe Bidens campaign froze donations from Srivastava, and that a US-based think tank, the 'Atlantic Council', was under duress for accepting donations from him.

The entire false publications have accused the Plaintiff of being a 'Scammer' even when there is no shred of evidence and iota of truth in such accusations, which are part of a paid campaign to tarnish and harm the reputation of the Plaintiff, the plea argued.

Senior Advocate Arvind Nigam, along with Advocates Bharat Arora, Abhishek Singh, and Gourav Arora, appeared for Gaurav Srivastava.