On 20 June 2025, The Commune called out the radio silence of Leftist-Dravidianist portal, The News Minute, on the Leela Samson ‘regret’ Facebook post for wrongly linking a female student with a male staff at Kalakshetra. When this was published on the X platform, a reader tagged TNM editor in chief, Dhanya Rajendran and asked, “would you like to comment on this? It was a topic you covered in some detail at that time.”
To this Rajendran replied, “If this is a genuine doubt. The complainant is a different person altogether. Has nothing to do with Leela Samson post, which was about a different student”
In response, another netizen who happened to be vocal during the time when the Kalakshetra issue was boiling over and the one who exposed the real reason why the accusations were being made, called out Rajendran’s lack of understanding. They wrote, “Surprised a journalist like you could fumble this badly. Your take shows zero grasp of the Kalakshetra issue—and even less interest in understanding it. Agenda over accuracy, clearly”. In another post, they wrote, “I think you should quit journalism because you have no clue about it.”
Maybe, we must educate Dhanya Rajendran once more and jog her memory.
How Is Leela Samson’s Regret Connected To The Kalakshetra Issue?
In December 2022, Leela Samson makes a Facebook post alleging sexual harassment by a male staff on minor students.
She continues to add comments in the same post dragging another student’s name into the mess. Soon after she deletes the post.
Now it is these additional comments where the real issue is hidden in – Leela unnecessarily drags a student (name masked) into the issue and defamed her needlessly.
While Samson deleted the post, the victim (the student whose name was mentioned in the original FB post) filed a defamation suit against her.
The Complaint
The complainant was a dance intern at the Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts (“RDCFA”) and has been associated with the institution for the past 7 years. The FIR states that the complaint pertains to the post made by Ms. Leela Samson, former director of the Kalakshetra Foundation on her Facebook profile in December 2022.
The post has been deleted but the complainant claims that it has brought ill repute to her name and upheaved her personal and academic life. She also accuses Samson of having written the post with a highly vindictive agenda.
The post made by Samson alleged that a male staff member indulged in acts of sexual harassment inside the campus. The alleged male staff member mentioned therein is one Mr. Haripadman who happened to be one of the complainant’s mentors and he had trained her for years together.
In the comments section of the now-deleted Facebook post made on 23 December 2022 by Leela Samson, the complainant says that various comments were made about the alleged misdemeanours committed by Mr. Haripadman and that what was particularly disconcerting was that her name was linked in an uncharitable manner with Mr. Haripadman in one of those comments on the Facebook post.
The comments said, “His victims are many. (Name hidden) had an abortion and wanted him to marry her. And so on. He had a mistress who is an intern – (name hidden) known to bully the younger students. Everyone knows. Junior students apparently ask the question – what do have to do to get a role in the concert section!”
The comment on the Facebook post mentions the complainant’s name (removed for anonymity), although misspelled makes an explicit reference to her and the FIR says that it has given rise to an immense upheaval of her personal and academic life. The contents of the comment, at first glance, besides being false and baseless, are patently derogatory, disparaging, and vituperative, which projects the complainant in an extremely disparaging manner, the FIR said.
The context, tone and tenor of Leela Samson’s post gives away that she had used the word “mistress” with a sexual connotation.
The reference to the complainant as a “mistress”, the FIR said, was an attack against her dignity and an affront to her modesty and as such attracts the provision of Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Now it is for this post that Samson posted a ‘regret’ message on her Facebook.
Leela Samson’s ‘Regret’ Post
On 15 June 2025, in a brief statement on her Facebook page, Samson wrote: “On December 23, 2022, I put a post on Athena, former student and presently Tutor at the Kalakshetra Foundation, on Facebook. I had wrongly mentioned her name in connection with a male faculty. I regret the error and no further comments will be made by me on her in the future.”
Samson’s admission comes after nearly two years of controversy stemming from her initial post, which alleged misconduct by a male teacher — Hari Padman — and inadvertently drew a student, into a scandal that disrupted her life and career. The student later alleged that the mention of her name, and its subsequent circulation in media reports and social media, had caused immense distress, mental agony, and damage to her reputation.
This ‘regret’ post came after the dispute was resolved recently through a mediated settlement following both civil and criminal complaints. The dragging of the student into the issue prompted the filing of a civil suit and related criminal charges. During the subsequent mediation process, as told to The Commune, Leela Samson expressed regret for her actions and agreed to do whatever was needed to make amends. This included putting up a public post on Facebook as a form of apology. In exchange for this, the complainant agreed to withdraw both the civil suit and the criminal case, effectively putting the matter to rest.
Before making the Facebook post, however, Leela took careful measures to control its visibility. She removed nearly all her friends from her account — reducing their number from approximately 2,000 down to just 5 — ensuring that the message would reach a limited and carefully curated viewership. Furthermore, as requested by the complainant, Leela made the post visible to the public while retaining this small number of friends. This tactic meant that the majority of her friends, and even many of her previous social media connections, remained oblivious to its content. In this way, the defendant was able to fulfill the terms of the agreement without broadly disclosing the details or drawing significant attention from her social circle.
As per the settlement, Leela Samson is to pay a total sum of ₹8 lakhs in two instalments — half upon withdrawal of the civil suit and the rest upon submission of a consent affidavit in the quash petition. The complainant also agreed to pursue quash proceedings before the Madras High Court.
The News Minute’s Coverage
The News Minute which doggedly reported the issue, in a biased manner, did not bother to report on Samson’s regret post. Now, Dhanya claims there is no connection to the Kalakshetra issue in the first place. Here is an article they published on how Leela Samson’s deleted Facebook post “cannot easily be discarded and that faculty Hari Padman was guilty of misconduct.”
So pray tell us how are both not connected – especially when Samson herself linked the student to Haripadman, the accused in the case and how her comments are important to the case itself, allegedly.
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