'If Rajeev Chandrasekhar Ignores Demand...': Shashi Tharoor's Warning After Legal Notice From Minister

‘if rajeev chandrasekhar ignores demand…’: shashi tharoor’s warning after legal notice from minister

Thiruvananthapuram: After BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s defamation notice against him, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor replied to him saying that he has not made any false and malicious imputations against the Union Minister and asked him to withdraw the statements. This comes after Chandrasekar sent a legal notice to Tharoor claiming that the Congress leader made ‘defamatory statements’ during an interview with a local news channel alleging that the BJP leader is involved in illegal activities and also offered money to voters.

In his legal notice, the Union Minister also claimed that Tharoor said Chandrashekhar “is spreading lies among Christian communities.”

Responding to the legal notice, Shashi Tharoor stated that he has “knowingly or unknowingly not made any false and malicious imputations” against the BJP leader to “defame or harm his deputation without any proof to support or validate the alleged claims.” The statement by Tharoor’s lawyers further said that “he is not responsible” for “any other versions of the same program” or any edits, post-production changes or any other acts that are not planned for broadcasting.

“My client is not responsible for any ‘slander’ as he has not uttered any. Your client is cooking up controversies to deflect people’s attention from his shortcomings and insufficiencies and to mislead their attention to couched up controversies, in his desperate bid to cause a dent on the popularity and acceptability of my client”, the statement read as per news agency ANI.

Further, the statement asked the BJP leader to withdraw the statements and issue an apology, adding that if the Minister ignored the notice’s demand, Tharoor would be constrained to prosecute him and initiate civil action against him. The statement read, “If your client ignores the demands of this notice and continues with his efforts and attempts to defame my client by raising false and fraudulent allegations and accusations against him, my client will be constrained to prosecute your client for the offence punishable under Sections 500, 171G and 211 of Indian Penal Code. My client would also be constrained to initiate Civil action for Unliquidated damages for the loss and damages suffered by him due to the baseless and malicious allegations and accusations levelled against him by your client.”

Kerala is set to hold elections in a single phase on April 26. The state has 20 Lok Sabha constituencies.

The election for the 543 Lok Sabha seats will be conducted in seven phases beginning on April 19. Around 97 crore voters are eligible this year to cast their votes. The counting of votes is set to take place on June 4. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured victory in 303 seats, with the Indian National Congress (INC) clinching only 52 seats.

(With inputs from ANI)