A C Muthiah asks his cousin to withdraw allegations or face legal action

Chettinad group MD M A M R Muthiah accused his uncle of obtaining the thumb impression of his father to grab assets

Industrialist and former chairman of SPIC Group AC Muthiah has asked MAMR Muthiah, who manages Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd, to withdraw a public notice, press statement, and a complaint lodged by the latter against him. Failing to withdraw, the veteran industrialist said he would initiate legal proceedings against MAMR, the adopted son of another industrialist and former member of Parliament MAM Ramaswamy.

In a letter issued on Thursday, AC Muthiah said he came across a public notice issued by MAMR with allegations against his uncle A C Muthiah and others and a press note issued with the same allegations.

"All the allegations against me contained in the said public note and the press statement are false, baseless, malicious, scandalous, and intended only to tarnish my reputation," he said in a letter addressing MAMR.

On Wednesday, MAMR Muthiah alleged that industrialist AC Muthiah, and two more, including a lawyer and a doctor, had illegally taken his father's shares in Chettinad Cement. They had, he alleged, taken a signature and thumb impression from his father when the latter was not conscious.

MAMR said his father, Ramaswamy, had been unwell for months. On November 7, he learnt his father had been hospitalised. His father, he said, was not conscious and not in a position to take decisions on his own.

Son and father have been fighting in courts and openly in the past year. Some months earlier, Ramaswamy publicly said he'd disowned his adopted son and declared that his assets would, after his death, go to a trust headed by AC Muthiah.

MAMR said he had given a complaint to the city's police commissioner. He also issued a public notice saying his father was critically ill and not in his conscious mind to recognise things in any form or manner. In the public notice MAMR said "public are hereby cautioned not to deal with

AC Muthiah and others or any other person or persons claiming to be their associations of his men, servants, agents or representatives and, thereby, not to act upon any documents relating to any movable or immovable property."