On 23 June 2017, Jay Sayta published a story on Indian news website the Wire alleging irregularities in the state lottery by a subsidiary of Essel Group. Essel Group filed a criminal complaint against Sayta and The Wire's three founding editors Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M.K. Venu, claiming that the story was defamatory. Essel Group withdrew its complaint after settling with Jay Sayta, who agreed not to pursue the story further.