MUMBAI: The US-based Viceroy Research’s report on Vedanta Group contains serious allegations, causing harm to the conglomerate’s business and reputation, former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has said in his legal opinion. “The elements required to establish defamation — both civil and criminal — are satisfied in this case, given that Viceroy has published public, reputationally damaging statements directly targeting the querist (Vedanta),” the former CJI said. Viceroy in a July 9 report accused Vedanta’s Londonbased parent Vedanta Resources of systematically draining the Indian-listed company. Its report, based on publicly available information, said that the entire group structure is “financially unsustainable”, operationally compromised, poses severe risks to creditors, and “resembles a Ponzi scheme”. Vedanta had dismissed the report. “The report contains serious imputations such as “Ponzi scheme” and “parasite”, which have caused harm to the querist’s (Vedanta) business and reputation. In these circumstances, the querist would be well placed to seek legal remedies,” Chandrachud said. The former CJI who had passed the final order on the Adani-Hindenburg case, further said, Viceroy’s report lacks credibility as it has a track record of taking short positions in listed companies and then publishing misleading reports to profit unlawfully from the resulting market impact. “The purported researchers behind the report have dubious credentials. Viceroy’s disclaimer that the allegations may be made to further its short-selling interests and the suspicious timing of publication further diminish the veracity of the report.”