The Madras High Court on Friday issued notices to former Tamil Nadu chief minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin and the party’s IT Wing on a ₹ 1 crore civil defamation suit filed by state minister and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader Aadhav Arjuna over an X post allegedly linking him to a narcotics case accused.
He has also sought a permanent injunction restraining Stalin and the DMK IT Wing from making similar statements against him in future. Arjuna has further sought directions to Stalin and the DMK IT Wing to issue unconditional apologies in both Tamil and English through their social media accounts, as well as widely circulated Tamil and English newspapers and television channels. He has sought that the apologies be given the same prominence as the allegedly defamatory post. He has also asked the court to direct the deletion of the post and screenshots of it circulating on social media, and to surrender electronic records relating to its creation. He has sought reimbursement of the costs incurred in filing the suit. Arjuna has alleged that the post was not an isolated statement by a social media functionary of the DMK, but was published on the instructions of Stalin, whom he described as exercising complete control over the affairs of the party. Arjuna had maintained that John Britto had no relationship with him and that the other John Britto had already approached the Chennai Police Commissioner to clarify that he was not the person arrested in the drug smuggling case.
Arjuna has asked the High Court to declare the June 8 post defamatory and direct Stalin and the DMK IT Wing to pay ₹ 1 crore as compensation for the alleged loss of reputation, personal injury and mental agony caused by the post. In June this year, Arjuna had issued a legal notice to Stalin and the DMK IT Wing demanding a public apology within 48 hours over the allegations. Because of the similarity in their names, his relative, P John Britto, had in fact approached the Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police and complained that he was being wrongly identified with the John Britto arrested in the narcotics case.
The John Britto referred to in the narcotics case was not his relative, according to Arjuna’s suit. At the time, he had alleged that Stalin and the DMK were “wantonly and wilfully” tarnishing the Minister’s image by linking him to John Britto.
The notices issued by Justice K Govindarajan Thilakavadi, after hearing preliminary submissions from Arjuna’s counsel, are returnable by September 15. The post, shared by the DMK IT Wing’s official X handle, claimed that John Britto, an accused in a narcotics case involving the alleged smuggling of banned substances worth ₹ 258 crore, was related to Arjuna. The judge also took note of senior counsel J. Ravindran entering appearance for Stalin and the DMK IT Wing. Arjuna has denied having any connection with the accused.
Arjuna told the Court that the X post made by DMK’s IT Wing was “ex facie false” and highly defamatory.
