Delhi Court Grants Bail to Shashi Tharoor Over ‘Scorpion’ Remarks

Shashi Tharoor has been granted bail over his alleged remarks for PM Modi.

(Photo: PTI)

A Delhi court granted bail to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Friday, 7 June on a complaint over his alleged 'scorpion' remarks referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal granted relief to Tharoor on a personal bond of Rs 20,000 after he appeared before the court and moved a bail application.

The court was hearing a criminal defamation complaint filed against Tharoor by Delhi BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, who had said his religious sentiments were hurt by the Congress leader’s statement.

The controversy surrounding Tharoor started last year in October, when the Congress leader referred to a quote from an RSS functionary about PM Modi in an old magazine article.

“The man [unnamed RSS source] says Mr. Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling. You cannot remove him with your hand and you cannot hit with a chappal either. And If you think about it, that’s a very very profound understanding of the relationship. Because if you try to remove a scorpion with your hand, you will get stung yourself badly. If you hit the Shivling with chappal, then you undermine all the sacred tenets of the faith that you hold [on Shivling] on which scorpion is sitting,” Tharoor was quoted by The Hindu as saying.

(With inputs from The Hindu and PTI)