Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan has issued a legal notice to retired bureaucrat Devasahayam and Sun News channel for ‘deliberate falsehood’ with an intention to spoil his image.
The notice, dated December 12, states that if Devasahayam and the editor of Sun News do not apologise within 24 hours, appropriate legal proceedings would be initiated against both of them. “…Both of you are instructed to apologise for the same in public and also in the news channel belonging to the second of you, within 24 hours from the receipt of this notice, failing which our client will be constrained to initiate appropriate civil and criminal proceedings against both of you before the court of law…,” reads the notice.
In his press meet held on December 8 in Nagercoil, Devasahayam had told reporters that the 4-lane highway being constructed in Kanyakumari was not being built as per the order of the Central government. Alleging fraud in the project, he said, “The order given by government of India is different from what is being done by the state government.” He accused the contractors of stealing sand for the project and added that he had details of the theft. “I have details of how land was acquired for this project, details of the sand used for the project – who stole it, why they stole it, how they stole it and how much was stolen,” he said. It was in this press meet that Devasahayam had accused Pon Radhakrishnan to be in the know of corruption that was taking place. “All this is done under the watch of the MP of this constituency, his men, his contractors, who are all getting money running upto lakhs and crores,” he said.
The legal notice issued to the former bureaucrat and the news channel called this a ‘deliberate falsehood done with the malicious intention to spoil his (Pon Radhakrishnan’s) reputation and image among the general public and in the political circle’. The notice also stated that while the accusation made by Devasahayam showed his ulterior motives to tarnish Pon Radhakrishnan’s reputation, the news channel telecasted it without verifying the truth behind those claims, which prompted people from the MP’s constituency to ask him for clarification on those claims.
“This incident of people seeking clarification from him has put our client in an embarrassing and shameful situation and the said telecast had brought down the respect and reputation, our client had all along gained in his unblemished public life,” reads the notice.
Pon Radhakrishnan is a Lok Sabha MP from the Kanyakumari constituency in Tamil Nadu, representing the BJP.
Source: The News Minute