A revision petition was filed by film financier S Mukanchand Bothra at the Madras High Court recently challenging the dismissal of a criminal defamation case against actor Rajinikanth for supposedly accusing the financier of attempting to extort money from him in 2015.
The revision petition came for hearing before Justice MV Muralidharan who had permitted the revision petitioner (Bothra), represented by his son M Gagan Bothra, to take private notice returnable by January 25.
As a response, Rajinikanth has filed a counter-affidavit stating that the revision petition is legally unsustainable.
In one of the reasons, the counter-affidavit states, “…the Petitioner (Bothra) herein had intentionally omitted to file my pleadings containing the alleged defamatory words and the same clearly establishes that the Petitioner had approached this Hon’ble court with unclean hands burking the material and relevant particulars before this Hon’ble court. It is therefore prayed that this Hon’ble court may be pleased to dismiss the above Revision Petition […]”
In the counter-affidavit, the actor also says, “…the private complaint by the Petitioner deserves to be dismissed as the same is clearly devoid of any merits. Even assuming without admitting, that my pleadings in the above mentioned civil suit is defamatory in nature, unless the said pleadings were held to be irrelevant and scandalous to the issues involved therein by the concerned civil court and consequently be striken off, the present complaint is not maintainable as per the dictum laid by this Hon’ble court.”
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”.
Rajinikanth announced his political entry on December 31 last year and is currently conducting recruitment drives across the state for an official party, which is expected to be announced in some months.