VS swallows allegation against Oommen Chandy

The Leader of Opposition VS Achuthanandan did a u-turn and stated before the Additional District Court, Thiruvananthapuram on Friday that he did not allege that corruption cases were pending against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The counsel of Acthuanandan claimed that his client had not raised such an allegation while appearing before the court that considered a defamation case filed by the Chief Minister. 
 

Also read: Chandy files defamation suit against VS
 

 During the hearing on Friday, the counsel of the Chief Minister challenged Achuthanandan to file an affidavit if he stood strong on his earlier allegation that the Chief Minister was facing 31 corruption cases. In response, the counsel of Achuthanandan stated that Chandy's counsel was misquoting his client and that Achuthanandan had not said so. 

It may be recalled that VS Achuthanandan had publicly alleged that all the ministers in the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) ministry except PK Jayalakshmi was facing numerous corruption cases. Ommen Chandy himself had 31 cases against him, he had said. 

Watch the video of Achuthanandan raising corruption allegations against Oommen Chandy:

Subsequently, Chandy challenged VS to prove his claim or apologize. The veteran communist was quite sarcastic in reply to this and stood firm on his allegations. Chandy, in turn, dragged him to the court and slapped a defamation case against the Leader of Opposition. 

Chandy had also approached the Election Commission  alleging that the CPM leader violated the model code of conduct by levelling baseless allegations.  He    urged the EC to direct the media not to publish unverified allegations.
 

Also read: CM's defamation: court against using it for political games

 Unfazed by the defamation case, Achuthanandan continued his attack on the Chief Minister. "Chandy, if you think that you can tie my tongue, you are living in fool's paradise," the veteran CPM leader wrote on his Facebook wall. "It is my duty to expose corruption in public and I'll continue to do just that," he wrote on his Facebook wall responding to the case. Achuthanandan remained unrelenting before the court in the beginning and even produced a list of cases against Chandy. Countering this, Chief Minister filed an affidavit saying that there are no cases against him. 

• elections 2016
• Kerala election 2016
• Oomen Chandy
• VS Achuthanandan
• oommen chandy defamation case