Delhi HC tells ‘The Wire’ to pull down report on chief secretary’s alleged links to land deal

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered news portal The Wire to take down a report that linked Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar’s son Karan Chauhan to a case related to enhanced valuation of land, Bar and Bench reported.

The report, titled “Links of son of Delhi Chief Secretary to Beneficiary’s Family in Land Over-Valuation Case Raise Questions” was published on November 9. It had alleged that Chauhan had links with a family that had benefited from inflated compensation for a 19-acre land acquired by the National Highway Authority of India in Delhi’s Bamnoli village.

On May 15, the district magistrate of southwest Delhi had overturned a 2018 decision of the additional district magistrate granting Rs 41.52 crore as compensation for the land acquired for the Dwarka Expressway road project to two brothers. The 2018 order to grant Rs 41.52 crore for the land was based on a valuation of Rs 53 lakh per acre, reported the Hindustan Times.

The order passed in May instead awarded Rs 353 crore compensation to two persons named Subhash Chand Kathuria and his brother Vinod Kathuria.

The Wire report alleged that Subhash Chand Kathuria’s son-in-law Aman Sarin, who runs a realty firm Anantraj Limited, had business ties with Chauhan.

On November 9, Kumar filed a defamation suit in the High Court to restrain The Wire from publishing...

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