The court was hearing the complaint filed by Delhi BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, who claimed that his religious sentiments were hurt.
PTI
Updated:February 15, 2020, 4:47 PM IST
File photo of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. (PTI Photo)
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 on Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for not appearing in hearing on a criminal defamation complaint filed against him for his alleged “scorpion” remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja imposed the cost on the Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram noting that he had failed to appear before him despite the court’s earlier direction.
The court was hearing the complaint filed by Delhi BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, who claimed that his religious sentiments were hurt.
“I am a devotee of Lord Shiva… However, the accused (Tharoor) completely disregarded the sentiments of crores of Shiva devotees, made the statement that hurt the sentiments of all the Lord Shiva devotees, both in India and outside the country,” the complaint said.
“The complainant’s religious sentiments were hurt and accused deliberately did this malicious act, intending to outrage religious feeling of Lord Shiva devotees by insulting their religious beliefs,” it said.
The complaint, filed through advocate Neeraj, termed the statement as an “intolerable abuse” and “absolute vilification” of the faith of millions of people.
The complaint was filed under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code relating to defamation.
Tharoor had claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling”.
Get the best of News18 delivered to your inbox – subscribe to News18 Daybreak. Follow News18.com on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, TikTok and on YouTube, and stay in the know with what’s happening in the world around you – in real time.
Source: News18