Thiruvananthapuram | Senior CPI(M) leader P K Sreemathi on Thursday said she would approach the police against a social media campaign alleging that she was receiving a family pension in the name of a deceased MLA.

Recently, some online news portals, citing purported RTI documents, alleged that Sreemathi was receiving a family pension in the name of an MLA identified as Krishnan.

However, no MLA by that name has ever been elected to the Kerala Assembly, she claimed.

An emotional Sreemathi rejected the allegation while speaking to reporters, saying she did not know any such MLA and had never received any legislators' family pension.

Addressing reporters here, the former minister said she had tried to verify the claim by asking whether such an MLA had represented any constituency, but was told that no such person existed.

"I don't even know whether such an MLA exists. Yet they are spreading rumours that I am receiving a family pension as the wife of such an MLA," she said.

Sreemathi, who began her career as a teacher, said the allegations had deeply hurt the reputation she had built over the past five decades.

"They are portraying me as someone who would do anything for money. The campaign is being carried out in a filthy manner through YouTube channels, visible to Malayalis across India and the world," she alleged.

She also expressed disappointment that no journalist had contacted her to verify the allegations over the past few days.

The veteran CPI(M) leader said she had decided to initiate legal action, describing the allegations as a serious attack on her dignity.

"My husband was a teacher. I was also a teacher and worked in schools until I was 45 years old, teaching Mathematics and Science to Classes 6 and 7. People have made many false claims about me in the past, but this has crossed all limits," she said.

Sreemathi said she would submit complaints to the Director General of Police, the Home Minister, the Speaker of the Kerala Assembly and the Chief Minister, besides initiating defamation proceedings against those behind the campaign