A Delhi Court on Saturday imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for not appearing in the court in connection with a defamation case filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar.
A Delhi court imposes fine of Rs 5,000 on Shashi Tharoor for not appearing before it for a hearing, in connection with a defamation case filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar. The case was filed by Babbar over Tharoor’s alleged “scorpion sitting on a Shivling” remark against PM Modi. pic.twitter.com/JICnMtrqgP
— ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2020
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja emphatically directed Tharoor to appear before the court on the next date of hearing on March 4.
Earlier in November 2019, the Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court had issued a bailable warrant against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor after he did not appear in the defamation case.
The case pertains to a defamation suit filed by Babbar over Tharoor’s alleged “Scorpion sitting on a Shivling” remark against Prime Minister Modi. Tharoor had said this in 2018 at the Bengaluru Literature festival.
In October 2018, while speaking at the literature festival, Shashi Tharoor stated that an unnamed RSS leader had told a journalist that PM Modi was like “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling — you cannot remove him with a hand and you cannot hit it with a chappal either”. He had called it “a remarkably striking metaphor”. Without naming the RSS leader, Tharoor alleged that some Sangh leaders were frustrated with their inability to put a curb on PM Modi.
Following these controversial remarks, BJP leader Rajeev Babbar had filed a defamation case against the former union minister, stating that his religious sentiments were hurt by the remarks. “I am a devotee of Lord Shiva…However, the accused (Shashi Tharoor) completely disregarded the sentiments of crores of Shiva devotees, (and) made the statement which hurt the sentiments of all Lord Shiva devotees, both in India and outside the country,” Babbar had said.
