Chief minister Oommen Chandy has filed a defamation suit against opposition leader V S Achuthanandan for making baseless allegations against him and his cabinet colleagues.

Achuthanandan had told an election convention in Dharmadom that Chandy was facing 31 corruption cases while his cabinet colleagues were facing 136 cases. Chandy had threatened to take legal course of action if Achuthanandan did not withdraw his statement.

The defamation suit was filed in the Thiruvananthapuram additional district court (vacation court) on Thursday. Chandy alleged in his petition that the opposition leader had purposefully made the statement knowing that it was untrue.