Thiruvananthapuram, April 1: Beleaguered film star-turned-Kerala minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar Monday filed for divorce in a family court here.
Minister for Forests and Sports Kumar, 46, filed a petition for divorce though veteran advocate K. Ramkumar. The court has accepted the petition and posted the matter for hearing June 29.
Last month, government chief whip P.C. George told the media that Kumar was the man a local daily had reported about, when it claimed that one minister had been beaten up by his lover's husband.
The scandal rocked the Congress-led Oommen Chandy government, which has only a three-seat majority in the 140-member Kerala assembly.
Kumar's wife is a doctor, and the couple has two sons.
Kumar is facing fire also from his party, Kerala Congress (B), which is headed by his father, veteran R. Balakrishna Pillai, a long-time legislator.
A year ago, Pillai booted his son from a party post and demanded that Chief Minister Chandy oust his party nominee (his son) from the cabinet, as he no longer listened to party directives.
At Chandy's behest, the father-son duo had decided to bury the hatchet last month.
It was reported that the minister's wife had sought Chandy's intervention. The matter was raised in the assembly, and the chief minister explained that the minister's wife had indeed met him, but had not submitted any petition on which he could act.
The truce between the father and son did not last long - Pillai complained that his son continued to pay no heed to party directives.
On Monday, Pillai told Chandy again that his son should be evicted from the state cabinet.
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