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Summons to Padmaja Venugopal in defamation case

By Our Staff Reporter

THRISSUR, MAY 3. The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Thrissur, Narayana Pisharody, today issued summons to the Congress candidate in the Mukundapuram Parliament constituency, Padmaja Venugopal, to appear before the court on June 30 in a defamation case filed against her by the human rights activist, Eachara Warrier.

The magistrate issued the summons after the court became convinced that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against Ms. Venugopal in the defamation case, an offence punishable under Section 500 of the IPC.

Mr. Warrier, in his complaint, accused Ms. Venugopal of having made an imputation during a programme in a private television channel that his son, P. Rajan, who was tortured to death by the police during the Emergency, was a naxalite. According to the complaint, she had said that Rajan, then a student of the Calicut Regional Engineering College, was in jail and that he was involved in a murder case. The complainant alleged that Ms. Venugopal had also said that Rajan was not a desirable person and that men with sons like him were bound to suffer.

According to Mr. Warrier, these statements were made because of her enmity towards him (Mr. Warrier) and with a view to deliberately hurting his feelings and that of his family. Mr Warrier said he had sent a legal notice to Ms. Venugopal earlier, pointing out that she had defamed his late son, and hurt his feelings as well as that of his family. He had called upon her to withdraw the imputations against Rajan. Ms. Venugopal, he said, had not sent any reply to the notice so far. However, she issued a press note expressing regret for the same.

The complaint has listed seven persons, including the LDF candidate in Mukundapuram, Lonappan Nambadan; the BJP candidate, Mathew Paily; the moderator of the television programme, Nikesh Kumar; the senior Congress leader and Ms. Venugopal's father, K. Karunakaran; and the former Ernakulam District Collector, Thomas Mathew; as witnesses.

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