New Delhi, Oct 31 (NIE): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday sent a legal notice to Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad after the BJP leader called him “an accused in a murder case”. Prasad made 

the remarks after Tharoor quoted an unnamed RSS source as saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was like a “scorpion sitting on a Shivling who cannot be removed by hand or hit with a chappal (slipper)”.

Accusing Prasad of intentionally harming and destroying his reputation, Tharoor asked the minister to tender an unconditional and written apology within 48 hours of the receipt of the notice. Tharoor also asked Prasad to delete the clip of his press conference where he made the remarks against him along with the “false, untrue and highly defamatory statements on Twitter”.

The Congress MP further said Prasad’s remarks that he was an accused in a murder case and that he had been chargesheeted for the serious allegation of murder were malicious. “When India’s Law Minister falsely invents a murder case against a political opponent, what hope for justice & democracy?” he said.

Prasad’s remarks pertain to the police investigation into the death of Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar. In its chargesheet, the Delhi Police has accused Tharoor of abetting the suicide of his wife and has not slapped any murder charges as claimed by Prasad.

The controversy began after Tharoor, while promoting his new book ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister’, at the Bengaluru Literature Festival quoted an unnamed RSS leader who spoke to journalist Vinod Jose of The Caravan as part of his extensive profile on Narendra Modi before he became prime minister.

“There is 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 & you cannot hit it with a chappal either’,” Tharoor said at the event on Sunday.

Hitting out at the Congress, Prasad said Tharoor who is accused in a murder case had attempted to disrespect Lord Shiva and demanded an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for insulting Lord Shiva.

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