Adani Group sues YouTuber for spreading 'fake news' on its grain silos business

Adani Agri Logistics of Adani Group has filed a civil suit in Ahmedabad against a YouTuber for allegedly spreading “fake news” on its operation involving the development of food grain storage facilities for Food Corporation of India.

The suit has been filed against Vinay Dubey, who was described by the petitioner company as a “YouTuber and creator of YouTube channel Loktantra TV”. Despite repeated attempts, the company officials refused to share details. Officials said that since the matter is subjudice, they can’t reveal any information.

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Sources said Dubey, who is said to be a resident of Uttar Pradesh and lives in Mumbai, had posted a video on his YouTube channel which the Adani group has found “fake”. The civil suit was listed for hearing in a city sessions court on Thursday which was adjourned till December 28.

Earlier this month, Adani Group had tweeted a detailed statement in response to “the misleading video posted by the Loktantra TV YouTube channel that is leveraging the ongoing farmer crisis in order to malign our reputation and misguide public opinion.”

The company has found that the purported video accused it of building grain storage facilities that would be allegedly used to hoard food grains from farmers and sold at a higher price at open markets.

“Firstly, the Adani Group is in the business of developing and operating grain silos for Food Corporation of India (FCI) since the year 2005, wherein the company sets up storage infrastructure based on transparent bidding parameters set by the government of India. All such PPP (public private partnership) projects are awarded to the concessionaires on a prescribed competitive bidding process. The company has no role in deciding the volume of storage as well as pricing of grains as it is only a service/infrastructure provider for the FCI, while the FCI controls the procurement and movement of the food grains for the Public Distribution Systems... To conclude, we do not own any food grains procured from farmers and are in no way connected to the pricing of grains. These kinds of storages are in benefit to the farmers, and they are the primary beneficiaries,” the Twitter post reads.

“Secondly, the video also misleads audiences into believing that a private rail line is being used to facilities the Adani Group. On the contrary, these railway lines are very much a part of the tender requirements floated by FCI under this PPP Project, whereby the railway lines facilitate the movement of grains from silo units to their distribution centres across India... Shockingly, the video urges the word ‘goons’. We strongly condemn such words for a professional team fulfilling their duty with a commitment to nation-building,” it adds.