Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday filed a defamation petition against an online news portal on charges of publishing an article on her health condition.

The petition was filed against Ajith Balakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Rediff, Nikil Lakshman, Editor-in-Chief, Abhishek Mande, Senior Associated Editor and R. Ramasubramanian, reporter.

It was filed by City Public Prosecutor, M.L. Jegan, on behalf of the Chief Minster before the Principal Sessions Court, Chennai.

The petition terms the article published by the online news portal Rediff.com on July 10 under the headline “Chennai media knew Jaya’s health was not fine but kept mum” as malicious. The Chief Minister claimed that the news was carried to harm her reputation, hence amounts to defamation, punishable under section 500 of the IPC.