Congress leader Elangovan appears in court in different defamation cases filed by Jayalalithaa, Rosaiah

Congress leader EVKS Elangovan on Thursday appeared before a court in Chennai in connection with two defamation cases filed by Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa against him.

Principal Sessions Judge G Jayachandran directed issuance of copies of the case documents to Elangovan as he replied in the negative when asked whether he was aware of the charges made out against him. Elangovan appeared before the judge in response to summons. The judge later posted the cases to September 14 for next hearing.

Separate defamation cases were filed on behalf of the Governor and the Chief Minister against Elangovan over certain allegations made by him on April 30 in a TV interview with regard to appointment of vice-chancellors of state-run universities. In their petitions, Rosaiah and Jayalalithaa contended that the allegations were blatantly false, made with ulterior motives and were defamatory.

Elangovan was the President of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee when he made the alleged defamatory remarks. After the party's debacle in the May 16 Assembly election, he quit from the post, but the party high command is yet to make it clear whether it has accepted his resignation.