Thiruvananthapuram: CPM state secretary M V Govindan on Saturday asserted that he would go ahead with the defamation case against gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh. He said this while commenting on Swapna's refusal to issue an apology over her allegations against him.
Taking a dig at Swapna, Govindan pointed out that she could have confirmed the authenticity of her statement before disclosing it to the media.
The CPM leader had sent a legal notice to Swapna seeking compensation of Rs 1 crore for damaging his reputation with baseless allegations. He also demanded her to tender an apology for raising the allegations against him. Swapna had alleged that Kannur-native Vijesh Pillai visited her on Govindan's behalf and asked her to withdraw her statement against Chief Minister and his family. She also claimed that Vijesh had offered Rs 30 crore to hand over all the evidence against CM and others.
Meanwhile, Swapna openly challenged Govindan's legal notice and declared that she would not pay even a penny in damages.
In a four-page letter, she shared on her Facebook page with a caption, 'here's my reply to you MR. MV GOVINDAN..', Swapna said she was 'eagerly awaiting a civil litigation' for Rs 1 crore.
Swapna's advocate, R Krishna Raj, who has drafted the response to Govindan's advocates, has said on behalf of his client that she did not claim middleman Vijay Pillai was an emissary of Govindan nor said the CPM leader or his family members were 'associated or acquainted' with Pillai.
