Anil Ambani withdraws defamation case against Mukesh Ambani

MUMBAI: Anil Ambani withdrew a Rs 10,000-crore defamation suit filed in the Bombay High Court against elder brother Mukesh Ambani and The New York Times (NYT) as the once-estranged brothers seek to return to a more harmonious relationship.

On Tuesday, lawyers representing the younger Ambani, the head of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, did not give any explanation for their change of heart, but said they did not want to proceed with the suit against Mr Mukesh and the NYT.

The petition filed by Mr Anil had alleged that the comments attributed to Mr Mukesh, chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, in a NYT article published on June 15, 2008, were “false, defamatory, malicious and totally baseless”. The article was reproduced by two national papers later that year, who were also made parties to the case.

The NYT article had stated that Anil oversaw an ‘intelligence agency’ that comprised of a network of lobbyists and spies — before the brothers demerged the Reliance Group — which supposedly tracked activities of bureaucrats and competitors.

Mr Mukesh supposedly told the NYT that such activities were discontinued by RIL after the brothers split the Reliance Group. “We demerged all of that,” he (Mukesh) says, breaking out in a belly laugh...,” the NYT article stated.

The two brothers decided to smoke the peace pipe after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the high-profile gas dispute between the two, favouring Mr Mukesh.

Last month, both the Ambanis said that they would negotiate and arrive at an amicable settlement in view of the order.