A Delhi court on Friday took cognisance of the criminal defamation complaint against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for his alleged ‘scorpion’ remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The complaint has been filed by Delhi BJP vice-president Rajeev Babbar. Besides prosecution, Mr. Babbar has sought a compensation of ₹5 crore. Taking cognisance of the complaint, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal fixed December 22 for recording of Mr. Babbar’s statement. The complaint stated that Mr. Tharoor made the alleged scandalous remarks at the Bangalore Literature Festival on October 28.
Mr. Babbar said Mr. Tharoor’s statement was not only “an abuse of the Hindu deity but also defamatory and an insult to BJP workers, supporters and leaders”. He added that his religious sentiments were hurt by Mr. Tharoor’s statement as it was not only “baseless but also misleading and defamatory” .
Mr. Babbar added that while making the statement the accused also referred to some article published in a magazine where an unknown RSS source had made the remark, which Mr. Tharoor had quoted in his speech. The accused deliberately dug out the statement to quote and make it relevant in the present context, the complaint stated.
