A day after Junior Vikatan, whistleblower Savukku Shankar and Tamil YouTuber Maridhas were booked by the Chennai police on the basis of a complaint filed by real estate company G Square Realtors, Junior Vikatan has now filed a complaint against the prime accused Kevin and Ramajayam alias Bala, the founder and Managing Director of G Square Realtors Private Limited.
It all started with a complaint filed by a man named Purushotham Kumar on Saturday, May 21, on behalf of G Square Realtors Private Limited and its founder Ramajayam. The complainant alleged that Ramajayam received a phone call from a man named Kevin on January 18 in which the latter said he was a close associate of Vikatan group's directors. Kevin allegedly demanded Rs 50 lakh on behalf of the magazine for stopping the publishing of a story on the company.
Purushotham says that the money was not paid, following which the article was published on January 23, 2022. The story went on to allege that the company had ties with the DMK and that various government officials helped them operate smoothly.
Purishotham also alleged that Kevin threatened that he would make people with significant social media following such as Savukku Shankar and Maridhas write defamatory statements about the company if the money was not paid.
Kevin was arrested by the Mylapore police on May 22 and has been remanded to judicial custody.
Vikatan has staunchly maintained that they have no ties with Kevin. Editor and publisher of Junior Vikatan Kalai Selvan filed the complaint with the City Police Commissioner seeking action against Kevin, Ramajayam and others who are connected with "trying to silence the magazine" by filing a false complaint. In the complaint, Junior Vikatan said the right of the print media to publish a piece of news about a matter of public concern is recognised as an integral part of freedom of expression under the constitution.
Kalaiselvan has also expressed surprise at the fact that a complaint was filed nearly four months after the alleged incident is said to have taken place and that too after the company had sent them a legal notice in February. "The complaint is the same as that of the legal notice dated 3.2.2022, alleging defamation and demanding compensation. Instead of responding to Junior Vikatan's reply dated 7.2.2022, G square has lodged this false complaint falsely implicating directors and editor of the magazine," he said in the complaint.
Kalaiselvan also said that Junior Vikatan sent a preliminary reply to the defamation case stating, "Junior Vikatan doesn't have anyone named Kevin in the firm either in an editorial team or anyone associated with directors and managing directors of the company".
Meanwhile, opposition leader and AIADMK co-coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami condemned the FIR naming "Vikatan and related persons". "This gives the police the power to arrest anyone in the company," he said and added that this should be seen as a warning to the media issuing anti-DMK news.
Savukku Shankar meanwhile told TNM that the case appears to be registered with an intention to silence anyone who speaks about G Square.