Vivek Doval filed a criminal defamation suit against news magazine The Caravan, author Kaushal Shroff and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
Vivek Doval, son of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, filed a criminal defamation suit against news magazine The Caravan, author Kaushal Shroff and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in New Delhi's Patiala House court on Monday.
The complaint has been filed over the publication of an alleged defamatory article, which claimed that Vivek Doval was running a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands.
The report in the magazine had titled the article ‘The D-Companies’, which is usually associated with the network of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Ironically, NSA Doval is considered one of the people who has inflicted the most damage to Ibrahim's network in his various roles in India's security establishment.
The Cayman Islands is known as a tax haven. According to a report published in The Caravan, the hedge fund was registered just 13 days after demonetisation announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, 2016. The article alleged that Vivek formed a company named GNY Asia with the motive of sending and receiving money from abroad.
The report also said that the fund was linked to the business of Ajit Doval’s elder son Shaurya Doval. Shaurya, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), heads the think tank India Foundation.
After the report came out, Congress also accused Vivek Doval of being involved in Cayman Islands hedge funds. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had alleged money laundering through his company.
All allegations baseless, says Vivek Doval
Vivek Doval has rubbished the report calling the allegations baseless. Speaking to Zee News, Vivek said that GNY Asia was started in October 2013, under the banner of Vivam Holding Co Ltd which had started collecting funds in November 2015 itself. The company was also registered in India in August 2016. He said he will present any evidence, if needed, to show that these allegations were false.
Another allegation made in the report is that GNY Asia was connected to his elder brother Shaurya Doval and also with the royal family of Saudi Arabia.
Vivek rubbished the claim saying GNY Asia has no business connection with Shaurya Doval.
He added that he had merely asked for some office space from Shaurya’s company ZEUS. He added that help was also sought from two ZEUS employees – Akul Jajharia and Priyanka Dua – who have also been paid a salary of Rs 1,60,000 per month.
Talking about the royal family of Saudi Arabia, he said that there were six investors in the company and none of then hailed from the Gulf kingdom.
'You can't compare apples with oranges'
Talking about his alleged business dealing in Cayman Island, a place termed a tax haven by his father Ajit Doval in a report on black money in 2011, Vivek said that though the place “was named a tax haven, there was no black money involved in his business”.
He added, “You can’t compare an apple with an orange”.
According to reports, investment of as much as Rs 8,300 crore was made in foreign direct investment (FDI) through Cayman Islands in 2017. Congress has alleged that the payments were routed through GNY Asia.
However, terming the allegations false, Vivek said, “GNY Asia fund started with Rs 77 crore, of which Rs 15 crore was invested in India. But later, our FPI license was cancelled because SEBI norms required at least 25 investors for the same. Therefore, our India operations ended in August 2017, and later we suffered major losses because of the trade war between China and US. The allegations made by the Congress are false.”
'My father has fought D-Company all his life'
Vivek also expressed his anguish at the reference of ‘D-company’ in the article. He pointed out that his father had always served the country and even risked his life, fighting enemies of the nation. He said that it was an attempt to malign his image and that of his brother in front of their father.
“We were born in this country and we will die for this country,” he added.
His also responded at attacks over his UK citizenship. Vivek said that it was imperative for him because most of his business needs required him to often be in London.
“Hence, I had to take British citizenship, but at the same time I also have Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status.”
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