Tharoor files defamation case against Ravi Shankar Prasad

Senior Congress leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor on Monday filed a criminal complaint against Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for allegedly making defamatory remarks against him.

Tharoor filed the complaint before a Thiruvananthapuram court.

"He (RS Prasad) accused me of being involved in a murder case. So I sent him a legal notice to withdraw his comments but he took a defiant stand. I tried to bite my tongue but there comes a time when the straw breaks camel's back," Tharoor told reporters here.

On October 31, Tharoor had sent a legal notice to Prasad for allegedly calling him a murder accused.

The notice was sent by Tharoor's lawyer over the video posted by the Union Minister on his official Twitter handle on October 28 where the latter said, "Shashi Tharoor who is charge-sheeted in a murder case has attempted to disrespect Lord Shiva." Prasad had made the statement during a press conference after Tharoor quoted an unnamed RSS source as saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was like a "scorpion sitting on a Shiva Linga who cannot be removed by hand or hit with a chappal (slipper) either".

Demanding an "unconditional and written apology from Prasad within 48 hours" of the receipt of the notice, Tharoor had also asked for the video to be deleted from the micro-blogging site.

He had said that the statement made in the video was "false, untrue, malicious, and highly defamatory".