Rashtrapati Bhavan has filed a complaint with Delhi Police against former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi for posting “defamatory” tweets against President Pranab Mukherjee and his secretary Omita Paul.

The complaint sent to Delhi Police Commissioner from the President’s Secretariat has screenshots of June 23 and June 25 tweets annexed to it, besides an 80-page file that Modi, being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged money laundering, had attached to his tweets.

The document shows a picture of the President, his secretary and businessman Vivek Nagpal, who Modi alleged, had taken favours from Mr. Mukherjee during his days in the Finance Ministry.

Modi had alleged that Mr. Mukherjee, in his stint as Finance Minister, pushed the ED to act against him after he raised questions about the shareholding pattern in Kochi franchise of IPL leading to the resignation of Shashi Tharoor from the Union Cabinet.

Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi has forwarded the complaint to the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of Delhi Police for necessary action, official sources said, adding no case has been registered so far.

Legal opinion is being sought whether the case could be registered under Section 499 and 500 of IPC for criminal defamation as the tweets intended to bring disrepute to the President and his office.

The other option available with the Delhi Police could be to approach a local court seeking a restraint order for Twitter to block the account.