A new corporate feud has broken out between Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra and Reliance Industries (RIL), with the former alleging that media entities linked to the Reliance Group have spread false information about his personal insolvency proceedings – a charge RIL later dismissed as “baseless”.
Speaking on Zee Business, Chandra claimed that media networks associated with RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani had pushed a misleading narrative around his case before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), including reports that pegged the claims against him at about ₹22,000 crore.
He went further, alleging that the coverage was part of a broader effort to weaken Zee, and pointed to what he described as earlier attempts by Reliance and Ambani’s network to acquire or take control of the company.
Reliance rejected the allegations on Friday. “The Reliance Group has noted with dismay the baseless remarks by Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra. Our media brands have never been used to attack anyone, nor will they ever be. We hold Subhash Chandra in high regard as a businessman and entrepreneur. We wish him well,” a Reliance spokesperson said.
The exchange follows a statement Chandra issued on Thursday, in which he said certain “vested media houses” were circulating incorrect information about his insolvency case and urged media platforms to report what he called the facts of the NCLT order.
At the heart of the dispute is the ₹22,000-crore figure. Chandra has contested reports that framed the proceedings as involving a personal debt of that size. According to his statement, the sum does not represent money he borrowed in his personal capacity; the claims against him as a personal guarantor, he said, stand at ₹3,992 crore.
Of that amount, a ₹620-crore claim has already been settled, while borrower entities have offered to pay a further ₹1,063 crore, he said. The companies for which he stood guarantor have repaid ₹43,000 crore to date, he added.
Chandra also accused media outlets of cherry-picking and sensationalising portions of the tribunal’s order.
The row is the latest chapter in an increasingly public rivalry between the Zee group and Reliance. As recently as May, Zee sued Reliance and Disney over alleged copyright infringement relating to music; Reuters reported on May 6 that Zee had alleged its music was used without permission.
This confrontation, however, moves the dispute beyond commercial and intellectual-property matters into a direct allegation about the use of media influence. Chandra has explicitly tied the reporting on his insolvency case to Reliance-controlled media entities, while Reliance has categorically denied deploying its media brands against individuals.
The clash also plays out against the backdrop of a changing Indian media landscape, in which large corporate groups have steadily built or acquired substantial television, digital and news-media businesses.