The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed an application preferred by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s son-in-law V. Sabarisan to strike out his name from a civil suit filed in 2020 by the then Deputy Speaker Pollachi V. Jayaraman, seeking damages of ₹1 crore for having reportedly linked his name with the Pollachi serial sexual assault and blackmailing case.
Justice P. Velmurugan rejected the application after pointing out that a similar application taken out by the applicant to reject the plaint had been dismissed by Justice P.T. Asha on November 2, 2020. After the dismissal, the judge granted time till March 23 for the applicant to file his written statement in response to the civil suit.
When it was brought to the notice of the court that Mr. Sabarisan had absolutely nothing to do with the alleged defamatory publications in a Tamil daily, connecting Mr. Jayaraman with the Pollachi serial sexual assault, the judge said, those arguments would have to be canvassed and proved only during the course of trial in the defamation suit.
In the suit filed through his counsel B. Arvind Srevatsa, the former Deputy Speaker had sought damages, jointly from Mr. Stalin, Mr. Sabarisan, Kalaignar T.V. Private Limited, Nakheeran R. Gopal and S. Arivazhagan of Junior Vikatan, and also insisted on an injunction restraining them from linking his name with the serial sexual assault case.
Subsequently, Kalaignar TV, Mr. Sabarisan and Mr. Gopal alone took out applications to reject the plaint but they got dismissed by way of a common order in November 2020.
