A court in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district has issued notices to journalists Abhisar Sharma and Raju Parulekar to appear before it in connection with criminal defamation complaints filed against them by the Adani Group, PTI reported on Tuesday.

According to a press release by the industrialist Gautam Adani-owned conglomerate, the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class in Adalaj directed Sharma and Parulekar to appear before it on September 20.

“The complaints point to a YouTube video uploaded on August 18, 2025, by Sharma alleging that thousands of bighas of land in Assam had been allotted to Adani and tying the company to a pattern of supposed political favours,” the news agency quoted the release as saying.

It added that the complaints filed against Parulekar pertained to his social media posts “since January 2025 making similar claims of land grabs, scams and undue benefits”.

Describing the allegations as “baseless and misleading”, the Adani Group claimed that an order issued by the Gauhati High Court on August 12, which was cited by the two journalists, made no reference to the conglomerate.

“The company also clarified that Mahabal Cement Pvt Ltd, the firm at the centre of the High Court case, has no connection with Adani in any manner,” PTI quoted the release as saying.

The case in the High Court pertained to the allocation of a plot of land measuring 2,000 bighas in Assam’s Dima Hasao district to Mahabal Cement Private Limited in October 2024. In November, the private company was allotted an additional adjacent plot measuring 1,000 bighas.

The Gauhati High Court had questioned the allotment of the 3,000 bighas, or about 4 sq km, of land to the private company to set up a cement factory, directing the state government to furnish the policy under which “such a huge chunk of land” could be given away.

Reports had claimed that Mahabal Cement Private Limited was linked to the Adani Group.

Mahabal Cement is a subsidiary of JK Lakshmi Cement.

In its press release, the conglomerate stated that the evidence placed before the Gandhinagar court included Sharma’s video and transcript, along with Parulekar’s social media posts. It also comprises the Gauhati High Court order from August 12 and other supporting records, the news agency reported.

If admitted, the cases may proceed to trial, where the two journalists can face imprisonment up to two years, fines, or both, it added.

The development comes days after a Delhi court on September 6 temporarily restrained five journalists and three websites from publishing allegedly defamatory material about Adani Enterprises.

The journalists are Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi, and the websites are paranjoy.in, adaniwatch.org and adanifiles.com.au.

The matter pertained to a defamation suit filed by Adani Enterprises, alleging that journalists, activists and organisations had damaged the company’s reputation and cost its stakeholders billions of dollars, Bar and Bench reported.

Adani Enterprises is the flagship company of the Adani Group.

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