E-gambling company SLAPPs ex-NUJS gaming laws blogger Jay Sayta for reporting on its CAG audit

Monday, 28 August 2017 By Legally India Litigation

NUJS Kolkata 2015 alumni Jay Sayta, who reports on India’s gambling laws on his website glaws.in, and The Wire, are facing E-Cool Gaming Solutions’ criminal defamation case in far-flung Mizoram for Sayta’s story reporting on a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit of the complainant, reported Medianama.

Sayta commented by phone today: “We will be filing a quashing petition in the Aizawl bench of the Gauhati high court. We are studying it and it does not seem to have much grounds but we will challenge it legally.”

Besides The Wire and Sayta, the Foundation for Independent Journalism, which runs The Wire, and its co-founder Siddharth Varadarajan, have also been made co-defendants in the complaint.

The dispute

“The story, titled “Spotlight on Subhash Chandra’s Essel Group as CAG Probes Rs 11,000 Crore Lottery Irregularity”, which remains published on The Wire, alleged that as per the CAG report, companies that had been awarded tenders have “not deposited proceeds from the sale of lottery tickets to the consolidated fund of the state, as required under the Lotteries (Regulation) Rules, 2010.

The CAG report also stated that out of the sale of lottery tickets of Rs 11,834.22 crores, only Rs 25.45 crores was deposited in the state exchequer,” reported The Wire. The defamation case alleges that “facts regarding the CAG Report titled Performance Audit of Mizoram State Lotteries have been twisted and manipulated, thereby making false and defamatory allegations against E-Cool Gaming Solutions Pvt. Ltd.,” the report added.

defamationcriminal defamation

Comments

Not a small fight 28 Aug 2017, 14:15
+16 -0
Jay we are with you. This is not a small fight. The Zee group will get rocked and will get a handsome beating from your hands. This is cheating from the Zee group. These are their old tricks - and they will end up divided.
Guest 28 Aug 2017, 19:53
+9 -5
I can't understand the need to mention NUJS in the headline and needlessly stoke up NLU pride. In fact, Zee should have been mentioned in the headline. The real story is that Zee is a mouthpiece of the BJP and Subhash Chandra got a Rajya Sabha seat from BJP, and in return their scams are being looked over. Even MSM is quiet.This needs to be raised by the opposition.
Bewildered 29 Aug 2017, 06:20
+4 -8
Far flung Mizoram??? Doesn't the matter pertain to that state? And as the idiot commenting about BJP - the period in question appears primarily to be during UPA rule and with CAG having delivered its report only in December 2016, you should expect some time to review and respond. Idiot.
guest2 4 Sept 2017, 06:04
+0 -1
Well said. And that is the bane of the tendency of people to just read/trust headlines and not bother getting all facts before stoking emotions and sensationalising things. Kind of depressing actually.
Down with BJP 29 Aug 2017, 11:19
+3 -1
We need to know whether money was routed to the BJP.
Commenting is closed for this article.