Actor Rajinikanth has moved a court in Chennai seeking to quash a criminal defamation case filed against him by film financier S Mukanchand Bothra.

On Tuesday, Rajini’s counsel filed a petition before the VII Metropolitan Magistrate Court, George Town, requesting that the complaint filed against the actor be quashed.

The petition reads, “Present complaint is neither maintainable on law or on facts and liable to be quashed as the same is a sheer abuse of process of law.”

It further adds, “The private complaint is of no substance there being no criminality spelt out in the above case and hence issuance of summons in the present case clearly amounts to an illegality.”

In April this year, VII Metropolitan Magistrate Court had ordered summons for actor Rajinikanth to appear before the court on June 6 in connection with the defamation case.

Bothra had filed a civil suit against Kasthuri Raja, actor Dhanush’s father, in connection with a cheque bounce case in 2015. In the suit, he claimed that he had lent money to Kasthuri Raja only after obtaining the consent of Rajinikanth, who is Dhanush’s father-in-law.

However, it has been alleged that Rajinikanth in a press statement had said that Bothra was attempting to extort money. Bothra then filed a defamation suit against the superstar for his remarks. That petition was, however, dismissed in 2017 due to “repeated non-appearance of the Petitioner”.

According to a report in The Hindu, Bothra had revived the case in February this year. Passing an order in the case, Justice MV Muralidharan said, “If the magistrate is taking cognisance of the complaint and issuing summons to Rajinikanth, his appearance is dispensed with, except in the hearings to be ordered by the magistrate.”

Magistrate, A Basheer, on April 27 ordered the issuance of summons to Rajinikanth and posted the matter to June 6.