The defamation suits filed by former Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED) chief executive officer P Chithirakala against former MIC president S Samy Vellu and two others, have been settled out-of-court.

This followed Chithirakala filing a notice of discontinuance of the suits last Tuesday, at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.

Her lawyer, Prakash Lachimanan, told the media that the parties had agreed to the settlement and it meant that it was the end of the matter.

On Nov 4, 2009, Chithirakala and her businessman husband, K Vasu, filed three suits against Samy Vellu, his wife R Indrani and the Tamil Nesan daily.

mic and mied education scandal In the first suit against Samy Vellu, Chithirakala and her husband claimed that the former works minister had made defamatory remarks related to MIED insurance on March 8, 2009, which were carried by all three Tamil dailies, namely Tamil Nesan, Makkal Osai and Malaysian Nanban .

Chithirakala said the remarks meant that she and her husband had conspired to cheat MIED, the education arm of MIC, and the Indian community.

In the second suit against Indrani, Chithirakala claimed that she had defamed her in an interview with the Malaysiakini news portal on Oct 1, this year, which was also carried in full by Makkal Osai on Oct 3, 2009.

Chithirakala, in her third suit against the publisher of the Tamil daily, Tamil Nesan (M) Sdn Bhd, and its editor-in-chief, K Padmanabhan, claimed that they had published defamatory articles on Oct 1, 2009.

She sought general and special damages in all three suits.

- Bernama