Chennai: The allegations by rival political leaders that the DMK organ 'Murasoli' had been built on dalit 'panchami' land got louder with the PMK chief Dr S Ramadoss insisting that DMK president Stalin should produce the ownership documents as proper defence instead of serving defamation notice on him for raising the issue.
The PMK chief had his lawyer K Balu send a stiff reply to the legal notice from Stalin's lawyer alleging defamation by Dr Ramadoss. There's no defamation when truth is uttered and that too for public cause, said the PMK lawyer in his retort.
He told Stalin's lawyer R S Bharati, MP, that recent events in Tamil Nadu turned the spotlight on panchami lands and Stalin himself had tweeted that the movie 'Asuran' focusing on this issue "is not just a movie but a lesson". As there has, long been, a "consistent demand from many organisations and political parties" to restore the panchami land from Murasoli Trust to the Dalit people, Dr Ramadoss had tweeted that learning the lesson from 'Asuran' movie, Stalin should return the land.
PMK lawyer Balu said 'defamation' as defined under Sec 499 of IPC spoke about the crime and punishment only when the accused spoke or wrote something to deliberately harm the reputation of a person with the intention of defaming him. The provision had a clear exception-"imputation of truth which public good requires to be made or published".
"The tweets made by my client are only for welfare of Dalit community and therefore they do not attract the aforesaid (Sec 499 IPC) provisions", said Balu denying the DMK chief's charge of defamation.
