The Sahara India Parivar has withdrawn its `200-crore defamation suit against the author -journalist Tamal Bandyopadhyay and publisher Jaico Publishing House as the two parties agreed to publish a disclaimer by Sahara in the book Sahara: the Untold Story.
The stay on the publication of the book too was lifted on Friday and the publishers said the book could hit the stands at the end of May.
Sahara"™s disclaimer said,"By getting the opportunities to put forward our objections and reservation in the form of a disclaimer in this book, in the best tradition of Sahara and our respect for a journalist"™s freedom, we are allowing the author to publish the book and withdrawing the case we had filed against the publication of the book."
The 8-para disclaimer further said,"The book can be treated as a perspective of the author with all its defamatory content, insinuation and other objections, which prompted us to exercise our right to approach the court of law..."
The 70,000-word book was to appear in January.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai today, Mr Bandyopadhyay was asked why he selected to write on Sahara and he said,"Three out of 12 Indians are attached to Sahara which has three crore investors. I, like many others, was curious about Sahara that had been raising money for a decade "˜playing between India and Bharat."™ In India he would be seen mixing with the world of glamour and power from film stars to businessmen and cricketers. And from the hinterland he would collect his funds. There were all the ingredients of glamour, greed and mystery around Sahara and its boss," he said.
Mr Bandyopadhyay said that the book is a 360-degree look at the 37 years of Sahara and its fight with regulators that includes verbatim conversations between the Sahara boss Subroto Roy and RBI functionaries and Sebi.