Thalassery: A local court here has rejected KPCC president K Sudhakaran's defamation petition against his 1997 arrest in the EP Jayarajan murder attempt case.
The Additional Sub-Court at Thalassery rejected the plea since the plaintiff did not deposit Rs 3.43 lakh, proportionate to the compensation of Rs 50 lakh he had claimed for defaming him.
Sudhakaran claimed in his petition that his arrest by the Kerala police, despite the High Court of Andhra Pradesh granting him bail, had defamed him.
The Lok Sabha member was arrested on October 22, 1997, and he filed a defamation case against the Kerala government and the State police the next year. He also filed an insolvency suit, saying he could not deposit the required Rs 3,43,300. The court accepted his argument.
The government, however, approached the court last year, saying Sudhakaran has been drawing a salary as a member of Parliament, and he has assets. Based on the documents the government had submitted to substantiate its argument, the court on December 7 last observed that Sudhakaran was not a pauper, and granted him time till Tuesday, January 30, to deposit the required amount.
The defamation suit was rejected after Sudhakaran failed to deposit the amount.
Jayarajan, now the LDF convenor, was shot at while the train he was travelling in neared the Chirala Railway Station in Andhra Pradesh on April 12, 1995. He was returning to Kerala after attending the CPM party Congress in Chandigarh.
