Two witnesses recorded their statements at the Patiala House Court on February 11 in the defamation case filed by NSA Ajit Doval’s son, Vivek Doval. The case is against The Caravan, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and author of the article Kaushal Shroff.

The two witnesses included Vivek’s business partner Amit Sharma and friend Nikhil Kapur. Sharma told the court that the allegations of money laundering levelled against their hedge fund GNY Asia Fund, were false and mala fide.“Since I have known Vivek and been an integral part of the Fund from the very beginning, I know these allegations are false,” Bar and Bench quoted Sharma as saying.

Referring to Ajit Doval’s position as NSA, Sharma said: “He [Ajit] made it very clear from the very beginning that his father or family background will not be used for any business  purpose…Vivek is a person of integrity, has a value system consistent to mine, and a thorough professional.”

The second witness, Kapur, was quoted as saying, “After reading the article, I was disappointed because I assumed there was some truth in the article.” He also claimed that after Vivek explained that the entire article was published to malign him, Kapur realised that it was copy paste job.

Earlier, The Caravan had published an article titled The D Companies, alleging that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s sons run a web of companies including a Cayman Islands hedge fund. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal had taken cognisance of Doval’s criminal defamation complaint on January 22. The matter will be next heard on February 22.