CHENNAI: On behalf of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, City Public Prosecutor M L Jagan on Monday filed a criminal complaint against Nakkheeran editor R R Gopal and two others, seeking punishment for publishing a defamatory and derogatory article against the CM in its January 7 edition.The complaint filed before the Principal Sessions Judge in Chennai sought to punish Gopal, joint editor A Kamaraj and reporter Umarmukhat for offences under sections 500 and 501 of the IPC. It said that the CM was held in high esteem by all sections of the people and described the Nakkheeran report as utterly false. No discussion or conversation, as reported in the biweekly, ever took place and the whole narration of events, especially in the impugned passage, was a figment of imagination. It had been attributed to the CM only to malign her reputation and lower her esteem in the minds of the public. In fact, C Ponnaiyan, who was part of the alleged discussion, had issued a statement strongly condemning the article and claimed it as totally false.The CPP filed a similar complaint against The Hindu editor-in-chief, printer & publisher N Ram and author B Kolappan for re-publishing the same contents in its January 8 edition. The offence was committed not only in respect of the original publication of defamatory matters, but also every repetition thereof made or published without verifying the original article, the plaint said.There was absolutely no justification for referring to the article in Nakkheeran at full length. The accused had resorted to malign the CM’s reputation, it added.
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