Yes, a judge here has ruled, and asked a resident of Mullurkkara in Thrissur district to pay a compensation of Rs 1.60 lakh to his neighbour for calling the latter `Bhindranwale' alias K P Muhammad in a police complaint.

Muhammad filed a defamation case against Krishnan Kutty, who had made the `defamatory' imputation in his complaint against Muhammad in the Vadakkanchery police station in 1990.

The police, too, registered the FIR and named the accused as `Bhindranwale' alias Muhammed. The controversial name was repeated in the police records transmitted to the court.

Contending he had been defamed in the eyes of friends and colleagues, Muhammed demanded an apology, but Krishnan Kutty did not oblige.

First Additional sub-judge K Abdul Rahiman, in his Judgement yesterday, rejected Kutty's contention that `Bhindranwale' was the name of a revered Sikh priest and that calling aperson by that name will not amount to defamation.

`Bhindranwale was a terrorist who camped in the Golden Temple and waged a war against the Indian Army demanding a separate nation for Sikhs, and, calling the plaintiff by that name will certainly amount to defamation,' the court held and decreed the suit for damages with costs.