New Delhi, Mar 17 : The Election Commission on Tuesday filed a criminal case under non-bailable law against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Varun Gandhi for his inflammatory speech against Muslims in Pilibhit.

The Commission directed the District Magistrate of Pilibhit to file the case against Gandhi.

The case would be filed under Section 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 123 (a) and 123 (b) and would be non-bailable.

Varun Gandhi, however, has denied the charges, saying that the CD containing his speech had been tampered with.

"All I want to say is that tomorrow I will be addressing a press conference in Delhi and I will be clarifying my stand on every single issue," he said.

On March 6, at an election meeting in his constituency Pilibhit, Varun Gandhi had said, "All Hindus should remain on one side and send the rest to Pakistan."

"They have names such as Karimullah, Mazurullah. If you see them in the night you would get scared," he added.

Varun also lashed out against Mahatma Gandhi.

"The adage that if somebody slaps you on one cheek you should face the other cheek, is the most stupid thing I have ever heard. If somebody slaps you, then you must cut that hand so that he cannot slap any other person as well," he said.

Varun has also come under attack from within the party and its allies.

The BJP Vice President Mukthar Abbas Naqvi on Monday said that Varun's remarks were a manifestation of his Congress past.

"Whatever is being shown on television channels, our party completely disagrees with it. We believe that whoever tries to dismantle the social fabric, to gain political mileage is not agreeable at all and the Election Commission will take action on it," Naqvi said.

Another BJP leader Shanawaz Hussain said the party completely disowned the incident and had nothing to do with the remarks made by Varun.

"This is not the opinion of Bharatiya Janata Party and there have been no instances when any of the BJP leaders have ever made such remarks. We completely disown this incident. The BJP will detach itself from him. Party has nothing to do with his remarks," Hussain said. (ANI)