Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin on Tuesday told the Madras High Court that he could not be held responsible for “every social media post” made by different wings or functionaries of his party merely because he was the party president.
His relative, P John Britto, had complained to the Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police that he was being wrongly identified as the man arrested in the narcotics case because their names were similar, according to his suit. Stalin also argued that Arjuna had not distanced himself from relatives facing investigation and therefore could not claim that his reputation had been damaged by being linked to another person accused of criminal activity. Arjuna has denied having any connection with the accused. Stalin further referred to criminal cases involving Arjuna’s family members, including his wife, mother-in-law and father-in-law, and to the CBI investigation against Arjuna in connection with the Karur stampede tragedy.
“Though I am the head of the party and I exercise administrative control over the office-bearers of various wings of the party, I cannot be legally responsible or liable for any individual acts of the members or wings of the party,” Stalin said in a counter filed in a civil defamation suit filed against him by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) minister Aadhav Arjuna. “Therefore, the applicant’s claim that linking him to an accused person has ruined his reputation is bizarre when there are pending criminal cases against his immediate family members and one criminal case pending against him,” he said in the counter affidavit. Arjuna, in his suit, has alleged that the said post was not an isolated act of a party functionary but was published on Stalin’s instructions, given his control over the affairs of the DMK and its IT Wing.
