A Delhi court today ordered Bloomberg Television Production Services India Pvt. Ltd to take down a defamatory article published against Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. Zee said that the “factually incorrect article” led to a “15 per cent drop in share price” of the company.

The company, argued in front of the Delhi Sessions Court that the article published by Bloomberg was “false and factually incorrect, with a pre-meditated and malafide intention to defame the company”. The article, on February 21, mentioned details pertaining to the corporate governance and business operations of ZEE, which were inaccurate in nature and led to a 15 per cent drop in share price of the company, eroding investor wealth, it said.

Additional district judge Harjyot Singh Bhalla, in a big relief to Zee, directed Bloomberg to “take down the defamatory article from its platform within one week of receipt of the order”, further restraining the platform from posting, circulating or publishing the article on any online or offline platform till the next date of hearing.

The article by Bloomberg, incorrectly published that Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has found a $241 million accounting issue at the Company, whereas there is no such order from the mentioned regulator, Zee insisted. It said that “despite the company firmly refuting the same, the article incorrectly published financial irregularities in Zee, without the basis of any order from the regulator”.

Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s pre-wedding festivities are underway in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Several Bollywood celebrities were seen arriving in the city to make their way to the star-studded celebrations. 

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today sent a legal notice to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party general secretary Jairam Ramesh for sharing a “twisted, distorted” version of one of his interviews on X.

Mr Gadkari said that the Congress posted the 19-second audio and visual clipping by “concealing the contextual intent and meaning” of his interview. He claimed the “sinister act” had been done with the sole intent to “fan and create confusion, sensation and disrepute” to him.

The 66-year-old has asked the Congress to delete the post “within 24 hours of receipt of this legal notice” and also demanded a written apology within three days.

Calling the video clip factually incorrect, he said that it was an “intentional attempt” by the Congress leaders to “insult and demean” him, “coupled with your intent to provoke members of Bhartiya Janata Party to develop ideological rift”. He claimed that the clip has resulted in “big reputation damage, defamation and great loss of credibility”.

“The interview has also been twisted, distorted and presented on your microblogging site ‘X’ wall by uploading the above video which is bereft and devoid of contextual meaning,” read the notice.

In the video shared on X by the Congress, Mr Gadkari can be heard saying, “Villages, poor, labourers and farmers are unhappy…The villages do not have good roads, there is no water to drink, there are no good hospitals, there are no good schools”.

The Cabinet Minister of Road Transport and Highways said that the Congress clipped the parts where he highlighted how much efforts were being made and the same is also giving good outcomes in the tenure of the present Union Government.

“(They) deliberately posted the Hindi captions and video by concealing the contextual meaning of the interaction which is deliberate and malicious to malign the reputation (of the minister),” he said.

The Congress is yet to respond to the notice.