A Kerala court has ordered Malayala Manorama to pay Rs 10 lakh in compensation to PK Indira, wife of CPM leader EP Jayarajan, over a defamation case linked to a report published on the front page of the daily in September 2020, Bar and Bench reported.

The report had accused Indira of violating Covid norms to visit a bank locker following news about her son’s alleged links with a gold-smuggling accused.

In his judgment, Judge Karunakaran B said in Kannur that the article is “per se defamatory to the plaintiff (Indira) and the defendants (Manorama employees) have miserably failed to prove that their action was justified by truth and good faith”. “Imputation of one’s reputation is of serious concern, especially when the allegation is attributed to corruption, gold scam, etc. Plaintiff’s name has been dragged into a serious issue of the time, lowering her image before right thinking people, without taking due care and caution before publication," the judgment stated, according to Bar and Bench.

Indira had reportedly filed the defamation suit alleging that the article was published with an intention to damage her reputation as well as that of her husband. She claimed that she had not violated quarantine rules and that she was unaware of any central agency probe into her access to the bank locker.

Manorama argued that they had verified the information with a reliable source and that the article was published in good faith.

But the court noted that the paper had not produced any documentary evidence to back up the claims.