Ready for legal action, says Annamalai on DMK's Rs 500 crore damages demand

K Annamalai has sought an amount from the ruling party for making certain 'baseless' allegations against him

After the DMK sent him a legal notice demanding Rs 500 crore in damages and an unconditional apology for “false, baseless, defamatory, and scandalous” allegations against its leaders, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on Monday hit back by seeking Rs 500 crore and one rupee from the ruling party for linking him with the scam-hit Arudhra chit fund.

In a four-page statement, Annamalai said he was prepared to face the legal notice sent by DMK organising secretary R S Bharathi following the release of DMK Files on Friday, and asked the ruling party leaders to wait for summons from investigating agencies on corruption allegations against them.

Read | Chennai Metro Rail says BJP leader's allegations are false, malicious

Annamalai also accused Bharathi, who articulated the DMK’s official response to allegations on Friday, of levelling a baseless allegation that he received Rs 84 crore from Arudhra chit fund which is embroiled in a scam. “I demand a compensation of Rs 500 crore and one rupee (from the DMK) for levelling baseless allegations against myself and the BJP. I would like to donate this amount to the PM Cares Fund,” Annamalai said.

He also threatened legal action against Bharathi if he didn’t come out with an explanation for the allegations against him and the BJP.

"I am ready for legal action," Annamalai said and added that he has proof to show that there was corruption in the allotment of tender to a rolling stock supplier for the first phase of Chennai Metro Rail. Annamalai has alleged that the tender rules were tweaked to favour Alstom, which in turn gave Rs 200 crores to the DMK for the 2011 elections through two shell companies.

The Chennai Metro Rail Corporation (CMRL) has denied the allegations of favouring Alstom, saying that the tender resulted in savings of Rs 250 crores for the government.

In the legal notice issued to Annamalai on April 15, Bharathi claimed Stalin has not received a single paise as illegal gratification in his five decades of public life and demanded an unconditional apology from the state BJP chief.

Read | DMK top brass owns assets worth Rs 1.32 lakh crore, says Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai

On Friday, Annamalai had claimed that top guns of DMK and their family members, including those related to Chief Minister M K Stalin, own assets worth Rs 1.32 lakh crore, and asserted that he will expose corruption of all political parties that have ruled the state so far, which includes ally AIADMK as well.

Alleging that 11 top leaders of the DMK like Stalin and his family members, Kanimozhi, Dayanidhi Maran, T R Baalu, Durai Murugan, K Ponmudy, and E V Velu and their relatives are worth Rs 1.32 lakh crore, the BJP chief had said the above mentioned amount was derived by evaluating assets owned by them and didn’t take black money or benami properties into account.