Thuglak Editor S Gurumurthy issues defamation notice to The Economist

Reserve Bank of India board member and Editor of Tamil magazine Thuglak S Gurumurthy has sent a defamation notice to The Economist for publishing a ‘libellous and defamatory’ article titled “The person who is doing most to undermine the Reserve Bank of India’ published in the magazine’s issue dated November 24.

The article, according to the notice, contained defamatory references calling Gurumurthy as a ‘fixer who gets things done in Delhi.’

“You have caused irreparable damage to reputation of Gurumurthy, who is uniformly acknowledged as a man of high probity by all,” said the notice issued by law firm RSN Chambers on behalf the city-based Chartered Accountant.

The 15-page notice issued on January 6 said that the publication of the article was without verifying the veracity of its contents and/or providing sources/references of real factors and truth is per se libellous, slanderous, defamatory, patently illegal and amounts to gross interference with Gurumurthy’s professional, personal and public life. The magazine had acted malafidely, and has not been fair to the material supplied by Gurumurthy, including his Curriculum Vitae.

“You have torn out of context the statements made by our client. You have attempted to tarnish the reputation and probity and public image of the client, both as chartered accountant, an economist, as well as a director of the Reserve Bank of India, which is a public office, held under statute. By impairing the image of our client, you have also attempted to undermine the image of the Reserve Bank of India,” the notice said.

The Economist must unconditionally apologise for the unverified information defamatory statements contained in the article; issue a correction towards Gurumurthy making an express disclaimer that you had no intention or grounds to doubt the integrity or ability of Gurumurthy, both personally or in the discharge of his professional duties, including the duties of holding a high public office, the notice said.

“We call upon you to undertake these corrective measures within the next two issues of The Economist . In the event that you elect not to pay heed to the present notice, we will be constrained to institute appropriate legal proceedings, both civil and criminal, and it would be entirely up to you to risk the consequences,” it added.

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