A Gandhinagar court in Gujarat sent OCCRP partner journalist and columnist Ravi Nair to jail on 17th September for missing a hearing in the criminal defamation case filed by the Adani Group.
Later, on Saturday (19th September), the Gujarat High Court issued a notice on a plea moved by Ravi Nair. Justice M K Thakker posted the matter for hearing on 21st September after the Gujarat High Court Chief Justice passed an order noting the ‘urgency’ of the case.
Ravi Nair was taken into custody and sent to jail on 17th September after a Gandhinagar court issued a non-bailable warrant against him on 3rd September in connection with his petition against his conviction and one-year simple imprisonment in a criminal defamation case against the Adani Group.
In his plea, Nair contended that the warrant against him was issued without prior summons or notice. Nair argued that he regularly attended the court hearings. However, the leftist propagandist was absent on 3rd September, prompting the court to issue a non-bailable arrest warrant after dismissing his application for exemption from personal appearance.
“On the very first occasion on which an application for exemption from his personal appearance came to be declined, without any prior notice to him and without the intermediate step of a bailable warrant being resorted to, the said warrant being returnable on the next date of hearing, namely 17.09.2026… However, surprisingly, the petitioner came to be sent to judicial custody in violation of law and procedure, although no application for cancellation of bail granted to him had been preferred by any party and no notice whatsoever on that aspect had been issued to him,” Nair’s petition reads.
Conviction of Ravi Nair in Adani defamation case
In early February 2026, a magistrate court in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district convicted Ravi Nair in a criminal defamation case filed by Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL). The court sentenced Nair to one year’s simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000. The verdict was delivered by the Court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class in Mansa taluka. The case was filed against Nair in September 2021 under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The case arose from a complaint by Adani Enterprises, the flagship firm of the Adani Group, in 2021, which accused Ravi Nair of posting and circulating a series of tweets from his handle @t_d_h_nair, and articles published on the anti-Adani website “Adani Watch”, that the company said were false, malicious and damaging to its reputation. According to the company, the posts were aimed at eroding public trust and shaking investor confidence in the conglomerate.
According to the prosecution, the tweets in question were published between October 2020 and July 2021 from Nair’s social media handle on Twitter (now X) and a website. The court held that the publications went beyond fair comment or permissible criticism and amounted to categorical assertions accusing the company of corruption, manipulation of laws, misuse of government agencies and undue political patronage.
The court noted that the imputations were presented as statements of fact rather than opinion. Furthermore, when such posts were circulated through social media platforms with wide reach, they were capable of damaging the company’s reputation among investors, regulators, business partners and right-thinking members of society.
From ‘no loss of reputation to Adani Enterprises’, ‘territorial jurisdiction’, ‘only a Director of the company could maintain the complaint’, to ‘questionable admissibility of electronic proof’, the court rejected the defence’s arguments.
The court noted that despite the fact that the tweets and articles in question pertain to different events and were published over a period of time, they “consistently target the complainant company and its group by alleging unethical conduct, manipulation of laws, misuse of governmental machinery, environmental violations, and financial impropriety.”
Noting the nature of the offence, the court declined to grant the benefit of probation and stated that such relief is meant for cases arising from ignorance or momentary lapse, not calculated intent.
“In these circumstances, the ingredients of the offence of defamation, as defined under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code and punishable under Section 500 thereof, stand duly proved. The accused Mr Ravı Naır, is held to be guilty of the offence under Section 499, punishable under Section 500 of the IPC,” the court ruled.
The court had also stated that, given the fact that the accused claimed to be a journalist, he “cannot be heard to plead ignorance of the impact, reach, and consequences of statements published through digital platforms.”
Unsurprisingly, Ravi Nair was hailed a hero back then, and continues to enjoy the ‘solidarity’ of the leftist ecosystem.
Ravi Nair, the notorious propagandist who mistakes leftist ideological activism for journalism
Leftist propagandist Ravi Nair is no stranger to controversies and court cases. Nair has a track record of consistently peddling malicious propaganda against his perceived ideological adversaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP, and businessmen like Gautam Adani.
In September this year, a Delhi court ordered him to remove unsubstantiated and defamatory content (based on the lies of Hindenburg Research), which he published to tarnish the reputation of businessman Gautam Adani.
Earlier in February 2025, Ravi Nair peddled lies about the Adani Group in the British newspaper ‘The Guardian.’
In October 2025, Nair wrote an article for the Washington Post, in which he alleged that the Government of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) had indicated plans for around $3.9 billion in investment in Adani Group companies.
Later, a complaint was filed by the Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), which alleged that false and fabricated information and documents were used in the report and related social media posts. Following this, an FIR was registered against Ravi Nair. In mid-August 2026, the Gujarat High Court refused to quash the FIR against Nair.
Back in 2022, Ravi Nair ended up exposing his dumbness while pretending to be an intellectual with a deep understanding of economics. The Wire columnist compared the Indian rupee with the currency of Afghanistan.
Earlier, it was reported that an Australian NGO-backed portal, ‘Adani Watch’, retweets almost all misleading articles by Ravi Nair. The ‘journalist’ is known for deriding Hindu sentiments and using Hinduphobic tropes regularly.
Nair earlier amplified lies about the Statue of Unity and called for its demolition. He was also caught spreading lies about the Rafale Deal and thwarting India’s defence procurement, although the manoeuvres of Ravi Nair and the extended left-liberal cabal remained unsuccessful.
