The Thrissur Chief Judicial Magistrate Court has taken up a criminal defamation complaint filed by noted writer K.R. Meera against writer Haritha Savithri over allegations of literary plagiarism levelled against Meera’s novel, Khalachi.
The complaint was filed before Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajashree Rajagopal on Tuesday. The court posted the case to November 7 for recording Ms. Meera’s statement.
According to the complaint, a Facebook post published by Ms. Savithri on May 5, 2026, followed by social media reactions and television interviews, questioned the originality of Khalachi and seriously damaged Ms. Meera’s literary reputation.
Ms. Meera has maintained that the novel’s conception dates back to 2013 and that its first six chapters, under the same title, were published on Truecopy Think from November 16, 2020. Documents supporting her contention that the novel’s characters, setting and central themes had been in the public domain years before the controversy were also submitted along with the complaint.
The complaint alleges that baseless accusations and insinuations had cast a cloud of suspicion over years of Ms. Meera’s creative labour and undermined her credibility as a writer in the public eye.
Ms. Meera approached the court through her counsel, advocate N.K. Unnikrishnan.
Published - October 13, 2026 07:36 pm IST