'Malicious Campaign Aimed At Crashing Stock Prices': Reliance Group Hits Out At Cobrapost

Reliance Group has condemned what it described as a “malicious and agenda-driven campaign” by Cobrapost, alleging that the media platform’s “so-called exposé" is a deliberate attempt to damage its reputation and mislead stakeholders.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Anil Ambani-led company said Cobrapost has been dormant since 2019, and has "zero journalistic credibility and a 100% track record of agenda-driven stings."

It alleged that the platform’s sudden revival is "fully funded by entities with direct commercial interest in acquiring Reliance Group assets."

The statement comes a day before Cobrapost has scheduled a press conference to highlight "how a corporate giant diverted funds worth Rs 28,874 crore in a fraudulent manner".

The Cobra's presser invitation for Thursday is titled "The Lootwallahs: How Indian Business is Robbing Indians-I. The Ledger of Lies. A Fraud Worth Around Rs 41,000 crore Exposed".

Reliance Group called the move a "deliberate campaign of calumny, disinformation, and character assassination", targeted at the Reliance Group, its chairman Anil D. Ambani, and its 5.5 million shareholders. The campaign seeks to "crash stock prices and induce panic" in the markets to facilitate the acquisition of Reliance Group assets at depressed valuations, it alleged.

The company further accused Cobrapost’s founder, Aniruddha Bahal, of engaging in "improper and coercive tactics that suggest there is more than meets the eye."

The Reliance Group asserted that the so-called exposé is "merely a regurgitation of old publicly available information – misrepresented, distorted, and taken entirely out of context."

The information being referred to is long available in the public domain and has already been examined by statutory authorities, including the CBI, ED, SEBI, and other competent agencies, it added.

The company also described the campaign as a "desperate attempt at extortion", aimed at extracting concessions and other benefits.

As part of its shareholder protection initiative, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power have filed a formal complaint with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), seeking an investigation into potential irregularities in stock trading patterns.