Kerala Court Sentences Associate Editor, Staff Reporter Of Mangalam Publication To Imprisonment In Defamation Case By Former Chief Secy
The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences), Ernakulam found R. Ajithkumar, Associate Editor of Mangalam Publication and K. K. Sunil Staff Reporter guilty of defamation under Section 500 of IPC in a defamation case filed by former Kerala State Chief Secretary Tom Jose IAS.
The Court sentenced both of them to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of 4 months. Mangalam publications is found to be guilty for defamation under Section 500 of IPC and sale of printed material containing defamatory material under Section 502 of IPC. The company is sentenced to pay an amount of Rs. 50,000/- for each of these offences. If the company declines to pay the fine, the Editor and Publisher of the publication would have to undergo 3 months of simple imprisonment for each of these offences.
The retired IAS officer had filed the case saying that on 12.04.2015 Mangalam Daily, Kochi edition published a news article saying that the complainant tried to exercise his influence in the higher offices of the Vigilance Department in an investigation against him which ensued after the authorities found out that the complainant had bought a flat in Maharashtra worth crores and a 1.5 Crore worth flat in Kadavanthra, Ernakulam.
The complainant submitted before the court that no vigilance enquiry was ordered against him for purchase of flat or property. During his cross-examination, it was brought out that there existed a vigilance enquiry against him. However, the proceeding against him were dropped in 2018.
The Court said that the documents before it shows that the vigilance enquiry was initiated in 2016. The accused could not prove that there was any enquiry against him in April 2015 when the news was published. The Court held that the accused could not prove what they published was truth.
Case Title: Tom Jose IAS v Mangalam Publications and Others
Case No: CC No. 75/ 2016