Former union minister and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has again courted controversy, this time by accusing the media of being “self-appointed liars and scum”.

However, as his comments kicked up a furore, he sought to clarify that he had attacked “only those who put exploitation of tragedy above justice”.

“I’ll speak to the police, not to self-appointed liars and scum,” he remarked while responding to a mediaperson’s querry here.

The lawmaker was asked why his aides were allegedly not speaking the truth in the case relating to the mysterious death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, in the wake of a Delhi court allowing the police Wednesday to conduct a lie-detector test on three “suspects” in the case.

“It suits gutter journalists 2 pretend I attacked their entire fraternity. I attacked only those who put exploitation of tragedy above justice,” the former Union minister tweeted Wednesday morning.

In another tweet, Tharoor said: “Let’s be clear: only 1 channel ran a witch-hunt yesterday all evening, lied & distorted facts, aired innuendo, ran a survey on purported guilt.”