Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi on Wednesday filed two defamation cases against AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa before a sessions court for her alleged defamatory remarks against him in her statements during the state Assembly election.
City public prosecutor M. Shahjahan filed the defamation complaints on behalf of chief minister M. Karunanidhi before principal sessions judge P. Devadoss.
According to Mr Shahjahan, a Tamil daily in its issue dated April 13, 2011 published the statement of Jayalalithaa, which was per se defamatory. A plain reading of the article had conveyed the message as though the chief minister had threatened the Election Commission and with the help of a Central minister was trying to create a panic among the voters as usual in order to bury the democracy. She had made the statement with an ulterior motive to defame the chief minister on the eve of the Assembly poll. Knowing fully well that the statement was false, frivolous, mischievous and per se defamatory intending to harm the reputation of chief minister, she had made the malicious statements. Hence, she had committed an offence under section 499 of IPC, he added.
In another complaint, Mr Shahjahan said another Tamil daily in its issue dated April 14 published another statement of Ms Jayalalithaa, which was baseless and had completely damaged and undermined the reputation of the chief minister.
A plain reading of the statement had conveyed the message as though the chief minister had directed the chief secretary to cut the fees of `300 given to the ex-servicemen who were deployed for the election duty, since they were only standing without any work and this had caused misunderstanding among the ex-servicemen.