'Vindicated': Indian-American Randeep Hothi jubilant after Elon Musk agrees to settle defamation suit for $10,000

A year after Elon Musk famously vowed never to settle 'an unjust case', reports say that the billionaire paid a settlement of $10,000 in a defamation case against him.

The suit, which has been going on for around three years, involved a long-standing enmity between Indian-American Randeep Hothi and Tesla executives, CEO Musk included.

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Who is Randeep Hothi?

Hothi has made a name for himself as one of the most vehement critics of Musk's Tesla. He is part of a group of people who tweet from anonymous accounts under the group name of TSLAQ, according to Indian and US media.

Randeep, who was a graduate student, started looking into the automated production of Teslas in a factory in California. He was openly sceptical online about Musk's ability to fulfil his claim of manufacturing a model in an almost fully-automated factory. Security guards at the facility, which included a showroom open to the public, were informed of Hothi's licence plate number and asked to get him to leave should they see him outside the factory.

Defamation suit

In 2018, Hothi entered the parking lot of the facility. When he was asked to leave, he passed a security guard, narrowly missing him with his car. CCTV footage from the incident does not make it clear exactly what happened, according to US media, but shortly after Musk claimed in an email that Hothi tried 'almost killed' the guard. The police and public prosecution were not able to find any evidence that this was the case and did not penalise Hothi, who went on to file a defamation suit against the Tesla CEO.

After the settlement, Hothi went on Twitter to express his happiness.

Tesla also took to Twitter to present their side of the story.

"Mr. Hothi accepted a “998” offer under California law. These offers are used to shift the cost of litigation to the losing party. If Mr. Hothi had not accepted it, he could have been on the hook for significant legal costs when he eventually lost. The offer expressly denied any liability by Mr. Musk. This was an admission of defeat by Mr. Hothi and his lawyers, not a victory," the company said in a tweet.

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