Congress' Kerala chief files criminal defamation case against CPI-M state Secy, woman leader, party organ

Kochi, July 25

Congress' Kerala President K. Sudhakaran on Tuesday filed a criminal defamation case against state CPI-M secretary M.V.Govindan, party organ ‘Deshabhmani’ and Kannur district panchayat President P.P. Divya for speaking "abject lies" of his presence at house of fraud antique dealer Monson Mavunkal during a sexual offence.

The petition was filed before the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate court.

It was last month that the CPI-M party organ published a report, which was later cited by Govindan about at a press conference, that Sudhakaran was present at the residence of now jailed fraud antique dealer Mavunkal when he had abused the daughter of the maid servant.

The same was repeated by Divya in public at Kannur, which is also the home turf of Sudhakaran and his Lok Sabha constituency.

"According to rules, the complainant has to directly appear before the magistrate and hence, I appeared before him and registered my complaint. The court will decide on my criminal defamation petition on Wednesday,” said Sudhakaran.

"The party organ first reported that I was present at the house of Monson and later Govindan and Divya said the same. I have been badly defamed with the worst ever allegation leveled on me. Hence I decided to fight against this legally," he added.

When the issue surfaced last month the Congress demanded that the police register a case against Govindan and the party organ ‘Deshabhimani’, but nothing happened and Sudhakaran had vowed he will take appropriate action.

This report and statement came a day after Mavunkal was sentenced to life by the Ernakulam district Pocso court. The case surfaced in 2022, when the dealer was already in jail in a cheating case, after his former woman employee complained to police that her minor daughter was raped by him in July 2019 at his place. The young girl was promised higher education by Mavunkal and the court on found Mavunkal guilty of the crime and sentenced him to a life term.