KOLKATA (The Thursday Times) — The Calcutta High Court has ordered YouTube, X and Meta to take down a documentary about Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after Adani Enterprises sued its maker, Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia, for defamation.
The interim order, issued late on Monday, also restrains Bhatia from spreading the 36-minute film, The Friendship Files, and will stay in force until January 31, 2027. Hearings are expected to resume in January. Adani Enterprises is seeking 500 million rupees, about $5.25 million, in damages.
The film “is not a news report or an account of proceedings. It is a dramatised narrative,” the court said in its order, according to Reuters.
What the film claims
The US-based Bhatia, who sold Hotmail to Microsoft in 1997, uses archival footage to trace the relationship between Modi and Adani back to Gujarat, where Modi was chief minister. The film questions how Adani won bids for six airports in 2019 after a government rule change that critics say favoured him.
Modi’s opponents have long accused him of favouring the tycoon. Both the government and the Adani Group deny this and say all rules were followed.
Adani Enterprises told the court it was not trying to stop constructive criticism of government policy, but argued that Bhatia had suppressed material facts.
Takedowns and reposts
The court order follows earlier pressure on the film. On October 19, police in Maharashtra sent Bhatia a takedown notice saying the content “made serious unsubstantiated allegations.” Opposition leader Raj Thackeray removed his own post of the film, which had drawn 4.8 million views on X, saying he did so at the request of the Mumbai police commissioner.
Bhatia struck a defiant note on X. “I believe the documentary has rattled Adani Enterprises Limited and struck a nerve at the highest levels,” he wrote, adding: “Truth is on my side.”
Opposition lawmaker Mahua Moitra, who shared the film on October 11, urged her followers to watch it. “It is still on my timeline, so do watch it,” she wrote.
Adani, Modi’s office, Bhatia and the social media companies did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
