PUTRAJAYA: Sungai Siput member of Parliament Kesavan Subramaniam was ordered to pay RM80,000 in damages to his former parliamentary research officer, Indrani Ramasamy, for defaming her.
This came after the Court of Appeal today allowed Indrani's appeal over a High Court decision in 2022 which dismissed her sexual harassment defamation suit against Kesavan, who is also the PKR Sungai Siput branch chief.
Counsel Rueben Mathiavaranam, who appeared for Indrani as the appellant, said the court allowed the appeal with costs.
He said the decision was read out by a three-member appellate court panel chaired by Justice Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said.
Also on the bench were Justices Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah and Datuk Hashim Hamzah.
Reuben said it was ruled that the High Court judge fell into error and hence the decision was set aside.
"The defendant (Kesavan) was ordered to pay Indrani damages in the sum of RM80,000 plus costs in the sum of RM20,000," said Rueben.
In July 2019, Indrani filed a defamation suit in the Kuala Lumpur High Court against Kesavan.
She had also lodged a police report claiming he had been sexually harassing her since December 2018.
She had done so following Kesavan's public statement on May 18 that year which claimed she was the one who pursued him, wanted to wreck his marriage and that her accusation had caused him mental trauma.
Kesavan had also lodged a police report against Indrani on May 18. He claimed she had been flooding him with phone calls.
Among the accusations made by Indrani in her first report was that Kesavan had shown her some content of the Kamasutra book and pornographic pictures.
The High Court, however, dismissed Indrani's suit on June 30 last year.