The Madras High Court on Thursday refused to discharge Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary Vaiko from a criminal defamation case filed against him in 2007 for reportedly making defamatory remarks against the then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi (since dead) in a letter written to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Justice P.N. Prakash dismissed a revision petition filed by Vaiko challenging the refusal of a special court for trying cases against members of Parliament as well as the Legislative Assembly to discharge him from the case. In its April 8 order, the special court held that there were prima facie materials to frame a charge under Section 499 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Not wanting to interfere with the trial court’s order, Justice Prakash said the contents of the letter written by the petitioner to the then Prime Minister had been released to the press and reported in an English newspaper on December 25, 2006. It was based on the newspaper report that the then City Public Prosecutor filed the criminal defamation case in 2007.
According to the news report, the petitioner wrote to the then Prime Minister as well as the chairperson of United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi to drop two of his party’s Union Ministers, L. Ganesan and Gingee Ramachandran, from the Cabinet, since both of them were reluctant to obey the party command and resign their posts.
In the letter, the MDMK general secretary also stated that he had called for a high-level meeting of his party in Chennai but the then Chief Minister Karunanidhi had hatched a plan to let loose hooligans in connivance with the police to disrupt the meet. He also alleged that the State government was gearing up the police force to prevent MDMK cadre from attending the meet.
Different case
Since there were grounds for presuming that the accused could have committed the offence of criminal defamation, he could not be discharged from the case, the judge said. He, however, discharged the petitioner from a defamation case booked against him in 2009 for having reportedly accused Karunanidhi of having orchestrated an attack on film director Bharathiraja’s office.
“No doubt MK (M. Karunanidhi) was a public servant at the relevant point of time. However, the alleged defamatory insinuations referred to above do not have nexus with the conduct of the Chief Minister in discharge of his public functions... On this solitary ground itself, the order under challenge in this criminal revision petition warrants interference,” the judge observed.