Defamation charges frivolous, says Shashi Tharoor

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday termed as "frivolous" the criminal defamation complaint filed by the BJP against him and alleged that it was an attempt to "throttle the freedom of expression".

Delhi BJP leader Rajeev Babbar filed the complaint against Tharoor's alleged "scorpion" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that his religious sentiments were hurt by the statement.

Tharoor had stoked a fresh controversy Sunday while speaking at the Bangalore Literature Festival, claiming that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a Shivling".

The complaint, filed through advocate Neeraj, termed the statement as an "intolerable abuse" and "absolute vilification" of the faith of millions of people. Reacting to it, Tharoor told reporters, "The charges are frivolous. If we start to stifle the right of the people to quote published material then where would our democracy head? Where is our freedom of expression?"

Tharoor said he did not believe that he had done anything wrong or out of the ordinary and any author would have felt free to quote such published material in writing. "I have also quoted Mr Modi's authorised biography by Andy Marino quite extensively. So it is not as if the 500-page book can be reduced to one line," the former diplomat, said. The complaint was filed under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code.

Sunanda Pushkar case: Court asks police to handover certain documents to Tharoor
Fixing December 1 as the next date of hearing in the Sunanda Pushkar death case, Delhi's Patiala House Court on Saturday directed Delhi Police to hand over certain documents to Congress leader and Pushkar's husband Shashi Tharoor.

Counsel for the Congress leader had informed the court that some files, relating to Pushkar's death, were in a hard disk, which Tharoor didn't have an access to. The Delhi Police had earlier handed over the copies of documents, including electronic evidence, to Tharoor on a plea moved by him in the court. The minister was last summoned by the court in June this year.

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