A Delhi court on Saturday imposed Rs 5,000 as costs on Shashi Tharoor for failure to appear during the hearing of a criminal defamation complaint against the Congress MP for allegedly claiming that an RSS functionary had compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a “scorpion sitting on a Shivling”.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja was hearing the complaint filed by Rajeev Babbar, a Delhi BJP leader, who said his religious sentiments were hurt.
The court levied the costs on Tharoor, a Lok Sabha member for Thiruvananthapuram, for not appearing in the proceedings even after a direction to this effect was given earlier.
Noting that he was Shiva devotee, Babbar said the Congress leader “completely disregarded the sentiments of crores of Shiva devotees” and made the statement which hurt the sentiments Shiva devotees within and outside India.
In his complaint under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, the BJP leader contended that Tharoor committed a “malicious act”.
Tharoor had allegedly claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had made the “scorpion” remark against Modi.