Court records Chandy's statement in defamation case

Kochi: Former chief minister Oommen Chandy on Tuesday appeared before Ernakulam chief judicial magistrate court and gave his statement in the defamation case against solar scam accused Saritha S Nair and four others.
Chief judicial magistrate S Aji Kumar recorded the statement of Chandy and the proceedings lasted for about 20 minutes. Chandy was seated at the witness box.He deposed before the magistrate that Saritha raised sexual allegation against him as part of a conspiracy.
The court posted the case for further proceedings to next month. Later, Chandy said to media that he could not reveal the details of the statement given before the magistrate. He was accompanied to the court by former minister K Babu, MLA Hibi Eden, former Kochi mayor Tony Chammany, KMI Mather and party workers.
In the complaint filed before the court, Chandy had stated that Saritha and four journalists of news channels said defamamatory statements against him on television, based on a 25-page letter which Saritha had allegedly written in 2013. In the controversial letter, she had alleged that she was sexually abused by Chandy.