Three days after the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) slapped a Rs 100 crore defamation notice on him, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on Tuesday alleged there was “no freedom of speech” in the state even as he asserted that he was ready to face 1,000 such cases before the end of his tenure.
Annamalai also dared the DMK to arrest him in “six hours” – he addressed a press conference at 12.15 pm and said he will be in office till 6.15 pm – if the allegation levelled against him by party Rajya Sabha MP R S Bharathi was true. While accusing Annamalai of defaming Stalin over his visit to the UAE on March 26, at a press conference, Bharathi accused the former IPS officer of threatening ex-AIADMK ministers and extorting money from them.
“I am giving an open challenge to the DMK. If the allegations against me are true and if you have evidence, arrest me in six hours. I will be here (state BJP office) till 6.15 pm. If you don’t arrest me in six hours, people will stop taking the DMK seriously,” Annamalai told the press conference.
He also said he has come from “Chokkampatti (his village in Karur district) to take on the Gopalapuram (DMK) family” and that he was ready to face any number of defamation cases. “I don’t have crores of rupees with me. All I have is two suitcases and two goats. I will not be scared of these defamation cases. There is no freedom of speech in Tamil Nadu,” Annamalai alleged.
The DMK had on March 26 slapped a legal notice on Annamalai for making “defamatory, false, scandalous, and vile” statements against Stalin, particularly about his visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The notice issued by Bharathi, also DMK’s organising secretary, had said he will be constrained to “initiate appropriate civil and criminal proceedings” if the former IPS officer does not tender a public apology within 24 hours, desist from making such statements, and pay damages to the tune of Rs 100 crore payable to the CM’s Public Relief fund within two days.
At protest events organised by BJP on March 24 and 25, Annamalai had attributed personal motives to Stalin’s visit to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Bharathi had alleged that Annamalai made “grossly false, frivolous, malicious and untrue” statements with the sole intention to “defame, denigrate and cause injury” to Stalin’s fame and his reputation and project as if he is indulging in some crime at the above-mentioned protests.
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