Indian court orders documentary on Modi, tycoon Adani removed

A court in India has ordered the ⁠takedown of an online documentary posted by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and billionaire Gautam Adani of cronyism, after Adani Enterprises sued, calling it defamatory.

Adani’s flagship firm, Adani Enterprises, told the High Court in the eastern city of Kolkata that the documentary, which garnered millions of views on social media in recent days, was riddled with false content and had prompted ‌inquiries from some investors in the company, whom the court order did not name.

The documentary “is not a news report or an account of proceedings. It is a dramatised narrative”, the court’s takedown order for YouTube, X and Meta Platforms issued late on Monday said.

Adani Enterprises, Modi’s office and Bhatia did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did the social media companies.

Modi’s opponents have often accused the prime minister of having close ties with Adani, saying the business tycoon has received favourable treatment over the years. The Indian government and the Adani group ⁠have repeatedly denied those allegations.

In its challenge, Adani Enterprises told the court that it did not seek to restrain constructive criticism of government policy or of ‌business concentration, but Bhatia had suppressed material facts, according to the court order.

Bhatia, who is based in the US, wrote in a social media post that the lawsuit demanded 500 million rupees (US$5.25 million) in damages. He wrote: “Truth ‌is on my side”.

“I believe the documentary has rattled Adani Enterprises Limited and struck a nerve at the highest levels,” he ⁠wrote.

Bhatia is the co-founder of ⁠once-popular email service Hotmail, which he sold to Microsoft in 1997.

In an interim order in force until January 31, 2027, the court ordered YouTube, X and Meta Platforms’ Instagram ‌to remove several posts of the 36-minute film, “The Friendship Files”. It also restrained Bhatia from disseminating the video.

Hearings in the case are likely to resume in January.

Ahead of the court challenge, police ‌in the ‌state of Maharashtra, which is led by Modi’s ruling alliance, sent a takedown notice to Bhatia on October 19, saying the content “made serious unsubstantiated ‌allegations”.

Modi’s political opponents have repeatedly been sharing the documentary, saying it reflected similar allegations they had made about the two men.

The film used archival footage to ⁠trace the history of the relationship between Modi and Adani, starting in the western state of Gujarat, where both men come from.

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It raised questions about ⁠Adani’s winning bid for six airports in 2019 after a government rule change that critics say favoured his enterprise – allegations similar to those levelled by the opposition Congress party.

The Adani group has denied such allegations and the government says all regulations were complied with ‌and there is no favouritism.

Earlier, regional opposition leader ‌and Modi critic Raj Thackeray shared the documentary on social media, but took it down, saying he was doing it at the request of the Mumbai police commissioner.

Mahua Moitra, another political opponent of Modi and a lawmaker, posted the documentary on October 11 and said it was still online.

“I posted this on Oct 11th. It is still on my timeline so do watch it,” she wrote on social media on Monday night.