DMK moves Madras HC against AIADMK chief EPS for defamation, seeks Rs 1 cr in damages

Chennai: The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu on Friday approached the Madras High Court, seeking Rs one crore in damages from AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami for making alleged defamatory allegations against the party on his social media account.

Justice RMT Teekaa Raman before whom the suit filed by DMK represented by its organisation secretary R S Bharathi came up, posted to next week, further hearing of the case.

In his suit, Bharathi also sought to restrain Palaniswami, the Leader of Opposition from making any references to the DMK in relation to Jaffer Sadiq, an alleged drug kingpin and the allegations against him.

In his suit, Bharathi submitted that the defamatory post on March 8, 2024 alleged increased crime rate under the DMK's administration, and that the party had caused embarrassment to Tamil Nadu due to drug trafficking. Palaniswami via the defamatory post had called upon the public to attend and participate in a human chain demonstration against the supposed misadministration of the governance of the state by DMK, he added.

He said subsequent to the post, Palaniswami shared another post on the 'X' platform the next day, reiterating the allegations as well as changing the account name of his Official 'X' Handle to include "Say No To Drugs & DMK".

He said Palaniswami to further impute the DMK, had posted another defamatory post, directly implicating the ruling party, its President and Chief Minister M K Stalin and its Youth Wing Secretary, the Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports Development Udhayanidhi to be associated with Jaffer Sadiq, who has been accused of being involved in an international drug trafficking network.

The DMK leader said Palaniswami through the defamatory posts, was attempting to cause disrepute to the DMK in the eyes of the public, by associating it with the said Jaffer Sadiq, who has been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau in connection with an alleged international drug trafficking.

He said the DMK as a political party was in no way connected with nor having any bearing to the alleged actions of Sadiq.

Furthermore, Sadiq was removed from his post of Chennai West Deputy Coordinator of the DMK's NRI wing on February 25, 2024 itself, much prior to his arrest, and as such, any or all supposed link between the DMK and him had ceased.

Palaniswami, in remiss of the above fact, which has been widely reported and has entered public domain, continues to associate the acts of Jaffer Sadiq with the DMK, which was per se false and spurious. Thus it was apparent that the defamatory posts were scant of merit or truth and had been published prematurely, with no efforts undertaken to ensure its veracity, he added.