Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor appeared before a court on Friday to give his statement in a defamation case filed against Mizoram governor PS Sreedharan Pillai. The defamation suit was filed for a statement Pillai made when he was the president of BJP’s Kerala unit.
“He made a statement in a press conference, maliciously intending to tarnish my image. That my three wives died and I had a wife from Adoor. I find these charges absurd. Tragically, I lost a wife and I don't know any woman from Adoor. This was said with the sole purpose of maligning me in the run-up to the elections," Tharoor told the press here.
Pillai had in a press conference last year said that everybody is asking how the three wives of the Congress candidate in Thiruvananthapuram died. “But neither the BJP nor I wish to ask that question,” he said.
Tharoor said he filed the defamation suit immediately because it was damaging for society if political leaders think they can say anything and get away with anything just to advance their agenda. The Congress MP added that he has been at the receiving end of such malicious campaigns for a long time.
"Argue with me on the work I have done for Trivandrum. Challenge me based on my work and not invent such lies. The very least the accused can do is to give an explanation as to why he made such statements. Or take back the statement," he said.
Pillai had also claimed that Tharoor’s second wife was a resident of Pattanamthitta district and used to approach him for legal advice. “I never revealed this before because I did not want to use such incidents as political tools,” Pillai had said, without naming Tharoor, who has been married three times.
Tharoor said that Pillai’s remarks about his second wife were false as he was married to a Canadian diplomat and not a Kerala resident.
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