Shashi Tharoor moves HC against summons in “scorpion” remark case

Senior Congress leader and Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court, challenging a trial court order summoning him in a defamation complaint over his remark that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling”.

Tharoor has asked the court to quash the trial court’s order of a magisterial court summoning him in the criminal defamation case filed by Delhi BJP leader Rajeev Babbar. Babbar filed the complaint claiming that his religious sentiments were hurt by the congress leader’s statement.

The former Union minister has also sought quashing of the complaint, which describes his 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 (IPC), relating to defamation.

A Delhi court last month had imposed Rs 5,000 as costs on Tharoor for failure to appear during the hearing of the case.

The court had 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.

Tharoor had allegedly claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had made the “scorpion” remark against Modi.