The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) registered “shock” and condemned the news that a court in Kutch had issued an arrest warrant against senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta on Tuesday. The warrant came about due to the alleged defamation of the Adani Group in an article co-authored by the journalist in in 2017. In a statement issued on Wednesday, DUJ said that while the Adani Group had “ironically” withdrawn the charges against the publishers of the piece and its co-authors, it had chosen to retain them in Guha Thakurta’s case. The article in question was published by the Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) in 2017. It had alleged that the Centre had tweaked rules of the Special Economic Zone which “enabled a company in the Adani Group to reap a bonanza of around Rs 500 crore.” The Adani Group subsequently sent a notice to the publisher and threatened legal action. Following the threat, the Sameeksha Trust, which publishes the EPW withdrew the piece and Guha Thakurta had resigned in protest.
— source newsclick.in | 20 Jan 2021