Defamation suit filed by Thiruvanthapuram Mayor against Congress MP

Thiruvananthapuram: Beleaguered young Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation Mayor Arya Rajendran on Monday filed a defamation suit against Congress Rajya Sabha member Jeby Methar.

Rajendran is presently caught in a controversy after her purported letter to senior CPI-M leader and Thiruvanthapuram district Secretary, Anavoor Nagappan, seeking a "priority list" as there are 295 temporary vacancies in the civic body.

The BJP and the Congress are up in arms and their protest before the Corporation office to demanding the resignation of what they have now termed the youngest corrupt Mayor entered its sixth day on Monday.

Rajendran, however, denied she had ever written such a letter, while Nagappan said he never got such a letter and this was told to the Crime Branch Police and Vigilance probe teams, but the letter is yet to surface.

Methar, who is also the head of the Mahila Congress, had, last week, while leading a party protest had a poster stuck on a bag asking the young Mayor "please return to Kozhikode with the money". She also addressed her as "Mayorkutty" or Kutty is a slang normally used for the young and the Mayor is only in her early twenties.

With the TV channels highlighting this poster, Rajendran said she will file a defamation suit against Methar which she did on Monday and filed a civil and criminal defamation case asking Methar to apologise publicly, or face action.

In reaction, Methar said she will definitely give a total reply once she gets the notice and will take the legal proceedings forward.

Media critic and leading lawyer A. Jayasankar said Rajendran's legal notice to Methar is nothing but a joke.

"In fact, the legal notice should have gone to the vernacular newspaper which first published this news and to the TV channel and instead for a poster, it has been sent to Methar. It should be looked into on why similar notices have not been sent by (Chief Minister Pinarayi) Vijayan and his family besides two former top CPI-M ministers (present legislator and former state Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran, former state Finance Minister Thomas Isaac and former Speaker P.Sreeramakrishnan, who all have been named by (gold smuggling case prime accused) Swapna Suresh," Jayasankar said.

with inputs from IANS