Chennai: An ousted AIADMK functionary, A V Raju, who had put his foot in the mouth by making a derogatory statement on the happenings at the 2017 Koovathur retreat of a section of the then AIADMK MLAs, apologized profusely for making an unsavoury comment by dragging the name of a Tamil film actress into it even as the film industry was up in arms against him.
In a media interview, Raju had launched a tirade against AIADMK Salem district secretary Venkatachalam and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami as they had thrown him out of the party. But in between he mentioned the name of the actress to spoil the reputation of his adversaries in the party.
But it boomeranged on him with Venkatachalam sending a legal notice seeking a public apology or face action as per the law and many prominent personalities from the film industry objecting to his defamatory statement.
Tamil YouTube channels went to town playing the video of the Raju's controversia interview and also slamming him for making such statements, besides suggesting legal action by the Film Artistes’ Association and others.
Even AIADMK leaders like D Jayakumar came down heavily on Raju, who was not part of the group of MLAs cooped up at Golden Bay resorts and the Village Retreat in Koovathur in the outskirts of Chennai in February 2017 to ensure that they remained loyal to the then V K Sasikala faction and did not switch over to the side of the then Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.
After he was thrown out of the party recently for anti-party activities, Raju claimed that he paid a brief visit to the resort then and found Venkatachalam to be involved in epicurean pursuits and even making a demand for young women.
Though Raju’s aim was to tarnish the image of Venkatachalam and Palaniswami, he named the actress as one among the many from the film industry who went to the resort to entertain Venkatachalam and other MLAs with Palaniswami bearing the entire cost.
He even said that one particular actress charged Rs 25 lakh for the visit, creating a sensation in social media with several people raising questions about his claims.
