Annamalai: No apology or compensation to DMK MP Kalanidhi

CHENNAI: State BJP president K Annamalai on Tuesday said he would neither pay damages nor tender apology to Chennai North MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy as he had possession of sufficient materials to prove his statements.

In a reply issued through party legal wing president K Paul Kanagaraj, Annamalai stood by his comments made against the MP in a press conference on April 14. "The implication of his statements was not that your client (Kalanidhi) is the formal 'owner of "kun Group", 'Vee care & other companies" and "chennai Public School" but that all the wealth in these institutions has been generated out of political corruption," Kanagaraj said in the legal notice addressed to P Wilson, who represents Kalanidhi.

Annamalai denied that he showed false and fabricated connections to companies that Kalanidhi was not part of.

Annamalai was in possession of sufficient material to establish both the value of the aforesaid institutions and the MP's connection with them. The evidence would be produced before the appropriate authorities at the appropriate stage, Kanagaraj further said in the notice.

He further said Chennai North MP's legal notice to Annamalai was an attempt to use the law of defamation to intimidate and silence Annamalai and prevent an open discussion regarding the issue.

Apart from issuing legal notice a week ago, Kalanidhi wrote a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to probe into Annamalai's transaction, citing his statement on April 14 that his friends have been helping him to meet the monthly expenditure to the tune of Rs 7 lakh. This includes paying monthly rent of the house and other expenses as state party president.