Thiruvananthapuram: The District Court here on Monday stayed the order of a lower court asking former Chief Minister VS Achuthanadan to pay Rs 10.10 lakh to his successor Oommen Chandy as defamation charges subject to certain conditions.
The court agreed to grant the stay in return for a deposit of Rs 14,89,750 for considering the appeal filed by Achuthanandan. An equivalent bail condition must be satisfied if the sum is not deposited.
The conditional stay was issued by Thiruvananthapuram Principal Sessions Judge PV Balakrishnan.
The court will consider the case on February 22 again.
The Principal Sub-Court -I here had asked Achuthanandan to pay the sum as defamation charges to Chandy last month for alleging the latter's involvement in the solar scam.
Chandy had filed a defamation case against Achuthanandan in 2014 for alleging, in a 2013 television interview, that Chandy was involved in the Solar scam. Achuthanandan was also asked to pay an interest of 6% for the amount, with retrospective effect from 2014. The order was issued by principal sub-judge Shibu Daniel.
Achuthanandan, who was then opposition leader, had said that a company was set up under Chandy's behest to swindle money in the name of solar power. It was also alleged that Chandy had accepted a bribe from the solar scam accused Saritha S Nair.
Chandy had testified before the Court on September 24, 2019. He had said that Achuthanandan's wild allegations were not backed by evidence and was instrumental in creating a wrong public impression about him.
Chandy also argued that if there was even a shred of evidence, the LDF government would have proceeded against him after it came to power. However, more than a year later, on January 25, 2021 and with the Assembly election near, the Pinarayi Vijayan government had given its nod for handing over the Solar case to the CBI.
