It was a study in contrast. Big brother Mukesh Ambani spent the morning watching television from the comfort of ‘Sea Wind’, the home in Mumbai he shares with his younger brother, Anil Ambani. The latter, on the other hand, flew down with one of his key strategists, J P Chalasani, to Delhi in their private jet and went to the Supreme Court. Anil was joined in the court by Tony Jesudasan, another trusted aide, who oversees the group’s corporate communications.
From Mukesh Ambani, the senior man deputed to the court from Mumbai headquarters was P M S Prasad, executive director of Reliance Industries, whose job was to be in court and then answer media queries. He was accompanied by Atul Dayal, permanent counsel of RIL and a key advisor on the case. Mukesh’s key associates, Manoj Modi and Anand Jain, were also not in Delhi on D-Day.
Prasad who had checked in the five-star Taj Mahal hotel yesterday, had a short media interaction after the judgment and then zipped across to meet lawyer Harish Salve, preparing for a later media briefing on the finer points of the judgment. After which, he was set to fly back in the night after a long day’s work. Late in the day, Salve also had a chat with both Mukesh and wife Nita Ambani, explaining the contours of the verdict, say sources.
With the curtains down on the judgment, the junior Ambani, refused to speak to the media and zipped off to his Aurangzeb Road office in the heart of the city, epicentre of many battles, where his senior management operates from.
Here the staff prepared for a conference call in the afternoon with the media and, soon after, Anil flew back with Chalasani.
Journalists, on the lookout for more personal vignettes, swapped less-than-momentous stories, such as the one on the senior communications executive with Anil who was supposed to brief the media well. Pushed around in the melee, his Blackberry phone fell and was stepped on, rendering him incommunicado.
