Chennai, April 21: The Tamil Nadu government today filed two defamation complaints against AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha for issuing press statements, which, it alleged, tarnished the image of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
City Public Prosecutor M Shajahan filed the complaints before the Principal Sessions Court.
“On April 14, a statement issued by Jayalalitha was published in a Tamil daily in connection with cutting fees structure of ex-service men who were on assembly poll duty,” Shajahan said.
“This has completely damaged and undermined the high reputation of the chief minister. The statement of AIADMK leader had created disrespect in the minds of general public and voters,” it said.
The complainant contended that “a plain reading of the article has conveyed the message as though the chief minister had directed the chief secretary to cut the fees of Rs 300 given to the ex-servicemen who were deployed for the election duty”.
State Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar had stated that he was responsible for cutting the fees structure to ex-servicemen and not the Chief Minister as stated in press statement by the AIADMK leader, the public prosecutor said.
In another complaint, Shajahan said Jayalalitha had made a press statement on April 13 which contained some statements defaming the chief minister and officials of Central and state governments.
“The statements by her blatantly contains false and baseless allegations with ulterior motive to cause damage and undermine the high reputation of the chief minister. It was only made to defame him on the eve of assembly polls,” Shajahan said in the complaints.
——–PTI