Defamation complaint filed against Shashi Tharoor in Delhi court

NEWDELHI: A leader from Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi unit on Saturday filed a criminal defamation complaint against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor over his comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The complainant sought ₹5 crore as compensation from Tharoor.

BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, who filed the complaint, told additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal that Tharoor made the statement with “mala fide intention”.

Tharoor had made the alleged comments while speaking at the Bangalore Literature Festival on October 28. In his comments, Tharoor had reportedly quoted what an RSS member had purportedly told a journalist in 2012.

“I was hurt by Tharoor’s statement. His comments are highly defamatory. That too, to say it to a person of such high stature and who is an icon and inspiration to me and many others is not acceptable,” Babbar said. He requested the court to initiate proceedings against Tharoor under Section 499/500 (defamation) of Indian Penal Code.

THE CHARGES ARE FRIVOLOUS: THAROOR

Reacting to the complaint, Tharoor said that 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 the freedom of expression? The criminal defamation suit against me is an attempt to throttle my voice,” he said.

The court has listed the complaint for further hearing on November 16.

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.

Tharoor alleged that courts were “being used as instrument of political persecution”.

“I am surprised to hear about the defamation suit. I hope the judge will throw it out on the grounds that this is the actual fact. But if not then certainly we have to defend it,” he said.