In a new twist to the ongoing war of words between Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Vaiko and Union Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran, the latter filed a petition in the Madras High Court on Wednesday, seeking to restrain Vaiko from referring to certain issues which were 'perniciously false, highly defamatory and malicious'.

In his civil suit, Maran sought a permanent injunction restraining the MDMK leader from making any speech or giving any statement orally or in writing against him in connection with cancellation of licence to Raj TV for uplinking two additional channels.

Vaiko had recently quit the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led alliance in Tamil Nadu and joined the one led by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa for the May 8 state Assembly polls.

Maran also asked for issue of an order to prevent Vaiko from referring to the alleged payment of Rs 10 crore for advertisements by BSNL to SUN TV, which is controlled by his brother Kalanidhi Maran and other family members.

Seeking a direction to Vaiko to pay him Rs 1 crore for the alledgedly defamatory remarks, Maran also sought a direction to Tamil daily Dina Malar, which had published the remarks in its March 31 edition and Jaya TV, which had carried the remarks to pay a sum of Rs one lakh each. Vaiko had reportedly made the remarks while addressing a meeting of his party on March 29.

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