Karan Thapar denies allegations of protecting Shashi Tharoor in molestation case

New Delhi: Senior journalist Karan Thapar on Tuesday denied the allegations levelled by lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai and challenged him to make public the full text without the redactions.

Earlier in the day, Dehadrai took to X to accuse Thapar of protecting Congress leader and Lok Sabha candidate from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor in a molestation case.

Karan Thapar is a twisted and corrupt monster - the suave and articulate exterior is a scam.

Went out of his way to protect dirty Shashi from me, in the hotel molestation incident of 11th October 2022 - rather than supporting the victim.

Lutyens filth is astounding. pic.twitter.com/gBclClYmKY

— Jai Anant Dehadrai (@jai_a_dehadrai) April 16, 2024

In a detailed clarification, Thapar accused Dehadrai, who shot to fame in cash-for-query scandal involving Mahua Moitra, of attempting to malign Tharoor at a time when he was contesting for the Presidentship of the Congress party. 

On the allegation of saving Tharoor, Thapar said that he was protecting the lady (victim).

Thapar challenged Dehadrai to make public the full text without the redactions.

Full response from Karan Thapar:

A text message I sent Jai Dehadrai sometime in October 2022 is being circulated by him in an attempt to distort and misconstrue its content and meaning. Let me, therefore, clarify.

At the time Shashi Tharoor was contesting for the Presidentship of the Congress Party and Jai Dehadrai, in an attempt to malign Shashi and as some sort of vendetta against him, sent me one or more messages alleging misbehaviour on Shashi’s part with several unnamed women. One of them is the person whose name has been redacted in the text message he is circulating. I know her extremely well and contacted her on receiving this message and she flatly denied the allegations it makes.

I then tried to contact Jai Dehadrai on the phone to tell him to stop this attempt to malign Shashi. As he would not answer I sent him the text message which has been, in a redacted form, made public.

If Jai Dehadrai had released the full unredacted text message everything would have been clear.

My intention was simple and obvious. To stop Jai Dehadrai maligning Shashi and also damaging the reputation of the lady whose name has been redacted. That is clear from the text even though it is redacted.

The claim that I was “protecting dirty Shashi” is nonsense because he needs no protection and I don’t believe he is in any way dirty. But, yes, I was protecting the lady whose name has been redacted.

If Jai Dehadrai is an honourable man he should make public the full text I sent him without the redactions and also the message(s) which he sent me which prompted my response. I also wonder why he’s chosen to make this redacted version public in the middle of the 2024 elections?