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Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 30 (IANS) Kerala BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar has filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against a TV channel reporter, alleging that the channel aired a series of false and defamatory reports linking him to a controversial land deal.
The case has been filed against nine persons, including channel owner Anto Augustine and others, all of whom are frontline journalists.
The case was filed through Mumbai-based law firm RHP Partners.
According to the complaint, Kochi-headquartered Reporter TV repeatedly broadcast fabricated news linking Chandrasekhar to land transactions involving a company named BPL, despite the fact that he has no connection with the company.
The notice said the reports were aimed at maligning his reputation and misusing his position as BJP state president.
The legal notice also demanded that the channel withdraw the false stories and issue a public apology within seven days, failing which further legal action would be taken.
Meanwhile, BPL Ltd issued a clarification dismissing the allegations as “completely baseless and factually incorrect”.
The company said that allegations of irregularities in the allotment of industrial land had been raised earlier also and were rejected by the Supreme Court in 2003.
“The current allegations are false and have no legal validity,” BPL said in a statement.
Chandrasekhar’s move is one of the biggest defamation claims filed by a political leader in Kerala in recent years.
It also comes amid broader debate over accountability and ethics in regional television journalism.
The BJP leader said he would not tolerate attempts to spread misinformation or damage his personal and political reputation through fabricated media campaigns.
Former Union Minister of State Chandrashekhar had fought a tough electoral battle against three-time sitting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in last year’s general elections.
However, Tharoor won the 2019 elections by a slim margin of around 15,000 votes against a margin of nearly one lakh votes.
Since then Chandrashekhar’s stature in the party grew considerably and he became a surprise choice as the state unit president.
–IANS
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