The Congress has reacted strongly over an offensive remark made against Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the Visitors’ Book kept at the Netaji Birthplace Museum here.

Taking strong exceptions to the “distasteful” language used against the freedom fighter and the first Prime Minister, the city Congress on Monday lodged an FIR against the visitor one Pramod Ranjan Dey of Bhubaneswar. “We have registered a case under section 292(a) of IPC for publicly speaking ill of somebody using obscene language and have started investigation,” said Darghabazar police station IIC Anil Kumar Beuria.

“Since the Museum was closed, we could not check the Visitors’ Book,” Mr. Beuria said adding that the CCTV footage would also be verified to ascertain details.

Using offensive language against Pt. Nehru, Dey had written: “Netaji could not get his due recognition because of Nehru.”

In the same remark, the visitor had also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declassify all the files related to the disappearance of Netaji. Signing his name, the visitor also gave his postal address, e-mail ID and telephone number when he visited the Museum on Sunday afternoon.

These remarks first came to the notice of former Union Minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who wanted to sign in the Visitors’ Book after visiting the Museum on Sunday evening. Expressing anguish over the remarks, the Congress leader wrote on the next page of the Book appreciating the efforts of museum staff for very neatly displaying the artefacts of the legendary leader in his ancestral home that was converted into a museum in 2003.

A visitor to the Netaji Birthplace Museum here wrote the offensive remark; FIR filed