NEW DELHI: Criminal charges were filed yesterday against Varun Gandhi, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Pilibhit in India’s Uttar Pradesh state.

The action was taken after footage emerged of him comparing a rival Muslim politician to Osama Bin Laden and threatening to cut the throats of Muslims during a political rally.

Varun, 29, descendant of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a founding father of India’s secular democracy, however, denied making the comments, saying the footage had been tampered with.

The nonbailable case against Varun was lodged in Pilibhit’s Barkeda police station following a directive from the Election Commission to Uttar Pradesh’s chief electoral officer.

The Election Commission, which sent notices to Varun and the BJP for violating the code of conduct for elections, also wanted the transfer and suspension of district officials for dereliction of duty.

Virtually shunning its candidate, the BJP said he must apologize for his inflammatory remarks that go against the party’s credo of “harmony and unity”. “We are of the strong belief that Varun Gandhi should apologize. The BJP dissociates itself from his remarks,” Shahnawaz Hussain, the party’s spokesperson in Parliament, told reporters in New Delhi. However, he added that since Varun had said the tapes were tampered with, the party would consider action only after seeing the evidence.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who has seen Varun closely as a young man, said: “This kind of Muslim bashing has been happening for a long time. But this is an extreme kind. This is the surest way of destroying the cultural ethos of the country and weakening the foundations of democracy. Such people have no right to be in politics.”