'When a big tree falls, the ground shakes', tweets Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Rajiv Gandhi’s death anniversary, later says account hacked

Remembering former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday posted a picture on Twitter. Chowdhury, however, deleted the tweet later. The tweet had Rajiv Gandhi's infamous quote linked to 1984 riots - “When a big tree falls, the ground shakes."

For the unversed, the controversial statement was made by Rajiv Gandhi justifying the 1984 Sikh genocide in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assassination. "We must remember Indiraji. We must remember why her assassination happened. We must remember who could be the people behind this. When Indira's assassination happened, there were riots in the country. We know that the hearts of the Indian people were full of anger and that for a few days people felt India was shaking. When a big tree falls, the earth shakes," Rajiv Gandhi had said while addressing a gathering decades ago.

Meanwhile, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury later claimed his Twitter account was hacked. "The tweet against my name in the Twitter account has nothing to do with my own observation. A malicious campaign is propagated by those forces inimical to me," he tweeted.

Chowdhury has meanwhile filed a police complaint with South Avenue Police Station, New Delhi. In his complaint, he has urged "to take immediate cognizance and please enquire and seal the IP address and take appropriate action of cybercrime at the earliest in accordance with the law."