Shashi Tharoor To Withdraw Defamation Case After Ravi Shankar Prasad Withdraws Remarks

Stating that the differences with Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad have been amicable settled, Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor announced his intention to withdraw the criminal defamation complaint filed by him against the former.

This was announced by Tharoor in Twitter on Saturday afternoon.

The criminal defamation case was filed in December 2018 over the remarks made by Prasad that Tharoor was a "murder accused". Alleging that the remarks were factually incorrect, Tharoor filed the case before Chief Judicial Magistrate Thiruvananthapuram.

Tharoor's announcement of his decision to withdraw the case comes after Prasad sent him a letter on Friday stating :

"More than a year ago during the heat of campaign I had made a comment describing you as an accused in a murder case. On receiving subsequent information about the conclusion of the investigation in the concerned case I learnt that the allegation against you is not factually correct. I accordingly, withdraw it, unconditionally".

The case spoken of here relates to the death of Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar in January 2014. Tharoor is charged with abetment of suicide in that case.

Prasad said that the remarks came in response to Tharoor's "scorpion in Shiv Linga" remarks with respect to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In his letter, Prasad has urged Tharoor to introspect and persuade himself to see if those comments were avoidable.

"I have known you for the last many years both in the Parliament and also from your UN days. While we differ politically, at times strongly, we both have maintained mutual respect and amity. You would surely appreciate that in a democratic polity, debate, discussion, differences, arguments as well as criticism is of essence. However, while upholding these salutory principles one should not hurt other's sentiments and reputation, and I had no intention of doing so in your case", Prasad stated.

Replying to this, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said :

"It was very gracious of you to withdraw your words in respect of myself, which had offended me greatly.

I welcome your statements and in view of our long association, I am happy to treat the matter as closed.

I am instructing my lawyers to withdraw the case I had filed in the matter".