Law Minister reaches ‘amicable settlement’ with Shashi Tharoor over ‘murder accused case’
NEW DELHI :Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said he has withdrawn his allegation made during Lok Sabha polls against Shashi Tharoor that the Congress leader is an “accused in a murder case”.
Reacting to the move, Tharoor said he is instructing his lawyers to withdraw the case he had filed against Prasad. “Pleased to announce the amicable settlement of my recent differences with Shri @ShashiTharoor Ji,” Prasad tweeted.
Prasad on Saturday (March 21) said that he has reached an ‘amicable settlement’ with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and withdrawn his allegation made during Lok Sabha polls against the Congress leader calling him an “accused in a murder case”.
Reacting to Prasad’s move, Tharoor said he has asked his lawyers to withdraw the case he had filed against the BJP MP from Patna Sahib. “Pleased to announce the amicable settlement of my recent differences with Shri @ShashiTharoor Ji,” tweeted Prasad.
The Union Minister also shared the letter written by him to Tharoor on March 20 withdrawing his allegation. In his letter, Prasad said Tharoor that he was happy to to close this matter amicably.
“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 said allegation against you is not factually correct accordingly, withdraw it unconditionally,” Prasad said in his letter.
“Though this was surely not your comment but its reiteration by you gave it prominence and led to circulation in entire country through media. I think if there is an introspection you too may be able to persuade yourself that the said comment being stated by you was avoidable,” the minister wrote.
Tharoor responding by saying “it was very gracious of you to withdraw your words in respect of myself, which had offended me greatly. I welcome your sentiments and in view of our long association, I am happy to treat the matter as closed.”
In response, during a press conference held in 2018, Prasad criticised Tharoor for having made the statement, while referring to Tharoor as being an accused in a murder case. Prasad also tweeted a video clip of the press conference, containing these statements, on the morning of October 28.
Tharoor had then filed a criminal defamation case against Prasad before a Kerala court.Tharoor is the sole accused in the case concerning the alleged suicide by his wife, Sunanda Pushkar.(With Zeenews Inputs).
