DMK sues TVK Ministers for ₹1 crore over Veeramani POCSO remarks

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has moved the Madras High Court with a ₹1-crore defamation suit against Ministers Aadhav Arjuna and C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar, along with the Information Technology wing of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam. The suit, filed through party general secretary Duraimurugan, concerns statements that the DMK says falsely accused it of shielding R. Veeramani of Gem Granites, an accused in a POCSO Act case, while the party was in power.

Justice K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi took up on Friday an application by the plaintiff seeking the court's leave to implead X Corp, Meta Platforms and YouTube as defendants. The plea was moved because requests had been made to take down the allegedly false and defamatory posts, but the multinational companies fall outside the High Court's jurisdiction.

Senior counsel Vijay Narayan appeared for the two Ministers, while senior counsel J. Ravindran appeared for the DMK. After hearing preliminary arguments, the judge adjourned the matter to Monday for the filing of counter affidavits.

The court orally cautioned the parties against politicising the issue, observing that such statements could dilute the investigation and might allow the accused to evade the law. "It is about the lives of minor girl children. The issue is very sensitive and all of us have a social responsibility," the judge remarked.

In its plaint, the DMK stated that the First Information Report in the POCSO case was registered promptly on October 7, 2025, a day after a child rights activist handed over a video clipping of the alleged sexual assault of a minor girl to the police. The investigation, it said, proceeded lawfully on the basis of available evidence, and the party had neither interfered with it nor had any connection or connivance with the named accused or anyone else linked to the alleged offence.

Citing a September 22, 2026 tweet by its deputy general secretary Kanimozhi Rajathi Karunanidhi, the party said it has consistently demanded that offenders in sexual offence cases be prosecuted and punished under the law. It accused the two Ministers of repeatedly making baseless allegations against the DMK during media interactions, allegedly to gain mileage in the Madurantakam and Dharapuram byelections. The TVK's IT wing, the plaint added, was involved in publishing, reposting and circulating the defamatory material through its social media handles, reaching a large audience and damaging the party's reputation, goodwill and public standing.