Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy on Friday filed a defamation case against Saritha Nair, co-accused in the solar scam case, and Malayalam news channels Asianet News and Kairali News, The News Minute reported. This comes after Asianet reported on April 3 that it had a copy of a letter from Nair, in which she said Chandy had sexually abused her. Nair had confirmed that she had written the letter in 2013.

In his complaint, Chandy has alleged that the letter being released just before the state Assembly elections was clearly indicative of a political conspiracy. Besides Nair, he named four others in the criminal defamation complaint filed with the chief judicial magistrate of Ernakulam. They include Asianet News Editor MG Radhakrishnan, Asianet News Senior News Anchor Vinu V John, Kairali News Chief News Editor Manoj K Varma and Kairali News Senior News Editor K Rajendran.

The case will come up for hearing on May 28. The Kerala polls are scheduled for May 16.