A criminal defamation complaint was filed against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in a Delhi court n Saturday for his alleged “scorpion” remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to reports, the complaint has been filed by Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Babbar in the Patiala House court.

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Babbar said in his complaint that Tharoor’s remarks hurt his religious sentiments.

“I am a devotee of Lord Shiva… However, the accused (Tharoor) completely disregarded the sentiments of crores of Shiva’s devotees, made the statement which hurt the sentiments of all the Lord Shiva devotees, both in India and outside the country,” the complaint said.

The complaint filed under sections 499 and 500 of the IPC accuses Tharoor of “intending to outrage religious feeling of Lord Shiva devotees”.

Also Read: Explained – Section 499 — the defamation law in India

The court adjourned the hearing on the matter for 16 November.

At the Bengaluru Literature Festival on 28 October Tharoor had, while quoting an unnamed RSS source, said, “There’s an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed RSS source to a journalist, that, ‘Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling, you can’t remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a chappal either’.”

“If you think about it that’s a very, very profound understanding of the relationship because If you remove a scorpion with your hand you will be stung very badly but if you hit a Shivling with a chappal then you have undermined all the sacred tenets of the faith,” Tharoor added.

Following a sharp reaction from the BJP, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram clarified that he was merely quoting from an article published six years ago in The Caravan.

“In view of the unseemly demonisation of an out of context remark today involving a scorpion metaphor, my book #TheParadoxicalPrimeMinister cites & footnotes this article — please see the last paragraph of this article,” tweeted Tharoor with a link to the article.

Read More: Shashi Tharoor hits back at BJP over ‘scorpion on Shivling’ metaphor for PM Modi

“This comment (not by me) has been in the public domain for six years,” he said, adding, “RS Prasad making an issue of a 6yr old quote shows how little new the BJP has to offer the nation. As for media subserving the BJP’s desire for “controversy”, when will this “profession” develop any self-respect?”

Following the “scorpion” remark, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had reportedly referred to Tharoor as a “small leader” and demanded an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

“While Rahul Gandhi who claims himself to be a Shiv bhakt, one of his small leaders has almost abused the sanctity of Shiv Linga and Lord Mahadev by referring to chappal attack through named sources,” Prasad was quoted as saying by ANI.

“Rahul Gandhi, you claim yourself be to a Shiv Bhakt please reply to this very horrific denunciation of Lord Mahadev by giving apology to what Tharoor has done,” added the minister.