Tamil Nadu minister Velumani denied relief in defamation suit

The Madras High Court Thursday declined to grant any interim relief to Tamil Nadu minister SP Velumani on his plea to restrain DMK chief M K Stalin from making "derogatory" speeches against him. When the civil suit by Velumani came up, Justice R Subramanian ordered notice to Stalin returnable by April 16.

The minister sought a permanent injunction restraining Stalin from propagating defamatory or false charges against him, besides a direction to pay Rs 1 crore as damages for lowering his reputation. Referring to the election speeches made by Stalin at various places, the plaintiff submitted the DMK leader was levelling "baseless" corruption charges against him with regard to tenders floated by local bodies.

Knowing fully that the speeches were "highly defamatory and false", Stalin tarnished and damaged his integrity and brought down his reputation and that of the AIADMK, the plaintiff said.

(With inputs from agencies.)