Chennai, Apr 5 (PTI) A Magistrate court here on Tuesday issued bailable arrest warrants against noted film director R K Selvamani, husband of Sreelatha alias Roja, who is a legislator from Nagari in Andhra Pradesh and Arul Anbarasu, a former Congress MLA and son of former Congress MP Anbarasu, in connection with a defamation case.

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XV Metropolitan Magistrate in George Town on April 4 issued the bailable arrest warrants against the duo, requiring their presence in his court on April 23.

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Originally, film financier Mukanchand Bothra of Sowcarpet had filed the defamation case in 2017 seeking to punish a Tamil TV media, by its MD R P Sayanarayanan and Selvamani and Arul Anbarasu in connection with the case. The case against the TV channel was quashed on February 7 this year. During the pendency of the matter, the petitioner died and his son Gaganchand Bothra pursued the case. The Magistrate issued the warrants, as the two accused did not appear before him on the earlier occasions and finally on April 4.

The charge against the duo was that they had given in an interview to Puthiya Thalaimurai TV channel on September 5, 2016 in which they had allegedly made defamatory statements against the original petitioner Mukanchand Bothra on the issue relating to the latter lending huge amount to Roja and his lending business. The words used by the duo had brought down the reputation and the image of the complainant in the eyes of the general public, Bothra contended and sought to punish them for offences under Sections 499 and 500 of the IPC.

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