Nallakaruppan needs time to respond to Anwar’s suit, court told

(Bernama) - Malaysian United Indian Party president Senator Datuk S. Nallakaruppan has to respond to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's RM100mil libel suit by May 15.

High Court Judicial Commissioner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera has given Nallakaruppan until May 15, to file his statement of defence.

He also fixed the same day for case management.

Earlier, Nallakaruppan's counsel, Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, had asked the court for a 14-day extension of time to file the defence as they needed to carry out some investigation into Anwar's suit.

On March 26, Anwar filed the suit against Nallakaruppan, Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd and the newspaper's group chief editor, Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak, over his (Nallakaruppan's) derogatory remarks in a statement published on the front page of the Utusan Malaysia newspaper dated March 20.

The other two defendants, Utusan Melayu and Abdul Aziz, should also file their defence by May 15.

Monday was the last date for the defendants to file their statement of defence.

Counsel Datuk Firoz Hussein Jamaluddin represented Utusan Melayu and Abdul Aziz while Latheefa Koya acted for Anwar.

In his statement of claim, Anwar said the libellous words contained in the newspaper article were false and baseless, and published with malicious intent.

Anwar claimed that he had sent a letter of demand through his lawyers to the defendants to withdraw the libellous words but they had failed to do so.

He is claiming RM100mil in general damages, as well as aggravated damages, exemplary damages, costs and other relief deemed fit by the court.

Anwar is also applying for an injunction to prohibit the defendants and their agents from continuing to state or publish the libellous words.