Chennai: Madras high court has directed the former chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin and the DMK IT Wing to respond by Sept 15 to a defamation case filed by public works minister Aadhav Arjuna over a social media post linking his relative in a drug trafficking case.On June 8, DMK posted on its official social media account that John Britto, described as a key accused in a ₹258 crore drug trafficking case, was a relative of Aadhav Arjuna. Claiming that the post was defamatory, Aadhav approached high court seeking ₹1 crore in damages from Stalin and DMK’s IT Wing.On Friday, when the plea came up for hearing, Justice K Govindarajan Thilakavadi directed Stalin and DMK IT wing to respond to the plea by Sept 15.In his petition, the minister also sought the court to direct Stalin and DMK to publish an apology in leading Tamil and English newspapers, and television channels for disseminating the ‘defamatory’ report. He further sought a permanent injunction restraining Stalin and the DMK IT Wing from publishing or disseminating similar ‘defamatory’ content in the future, contending that the post had been made under the direction of the party president.He submitted that there was no connection whatsoever between John Britto, the accused in the drug trafficking case, and the minister. DMK had deliberately used the similarity in the names of the accused, P John Britto, and the minister’s relative, with a political motive to spread defamatory allegations against him, said Aadhav.
