Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court has refused to quash an FIR lodged by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) Ltd against journalist Ravi Nair over allegations that he used forged documents for a defamatory news report. APSEZ filed the FIR on May 29 at DCB police station in Ahmedabad, objecting to an article published in a foreign daily on Oct 24, 2025.In the report, Nair claimed that the central govt and Life Insurance Corporation of India had directed large investments into Adani Group companies. Nair reportedly posted on his social media handle that after the US authorities initiated legal action against Adani Group, the Indian officials had decided to make investments of $3.9 billion in Adani Group.LIC and govt denied the claims made in the report. APSEZ first filed a private defamation complaint against Nair and later lodged an FIR, alleging that he had relied on forged documents. LIC said no such documents had been prepared by it.This led HC to state, “Therefore, the existence of such documents is under the clouds, and they prima facie appear to be forged one. It is for the investigating agency to find out the truth as regards those documents. (sic)”The court rejected Nair’s argument that the FIR amounted to an abuse of law because a private defamation complaint had already been filed. It said, “Though the facts mentioned in the private complaint as well as in the impugned FIR may be the same, the allegations levelled against the petitioner in the impugned FIR are altogether different and prima facie make out a cognisable offence against the petitioner. Merely because the Respondent No .2 (APSEZ) has lodged a private complaint for an offence of defamation, he cannot be precluded from taking recourse to law for the alleged cognisable offence committed by the petitioner.”In another complaint filed by Adani group, Nair was sentenced to one year in prison by a court in Gandhinagar district.
