LONDON: Ajitabh Bachchan, younger brother of Indian film star Amitabh Bachchan, Thursday ‘won an unqualified apology and “substantial damages” with costs in a libel suit he had filed in the high court of England against the ‘Swedish newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” for publishing a report linking him with the controversial Bofors gun deal.
The Swedish newspaper, “to underline the sincerity of their apology” undertook before the court to publish an agreed report of the statement of apology in Swedish language in Friday’s issue.
Dagens Nyheter, which failed to produce any witness to substantiate the allegations levelled against Ajitabh Bachchan in their report published on January 31, 1990, blamed the “persons who were directly involved in the investigations into the Bofors transaction on behalf of the Indians government” for misleading both the correspondent and the editor of the newspaper.
“As a result of further information which my clients and their editor, Ms Christina Jutterstrom, have been able to obtain Thursday morning from Switzerland, they are now completely satisfied that they were misled earlier in trusting information from persons directly involved with the Bofors investigations” counsel for Dagens Nyheter admitted before the court.
Without naming anyone, he said “It has now emerged that they were wrong to place trust in them.”
After Dagens Nyheter “unreservedly and willingly” apologised for distress and embarrassment caused to Bachchan, the counsel for Ajitabh announced that he would donate the amount received as damages to various charity set ups in England and India. The quantum of the damages is yet to be made public.
The trial collapsed at the outset, as counsel for the Swedish newspaper rose before a court packed with Bachchan fans, including a large number of children, that his client wished to apologise for the report.
Amitabh, Ajitabh, his wife, children and Mrs Teji Bachchan, their mother, were present in the court.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 3, 1990
