A man hurled a shoe at Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav and spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao when they were addressing a press conference in Delhi on Thursday, reported PTI. The BJP leaders were unhurt.

The police are currently interrogating Shakti Bhargava, who is a doctor by profession, in custody. It was not immediately known why he attacked the BJP leaders.

At the time of the incident, Rao was accusing the Congress of defaming Hindus by imposing “false cases” on Hindutva activists, including Pragya Singh Thakur. The BJP has fielded Thakur, who is accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, from Bhopal, where she is pitted against Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh.

Rao condemned the incident and alleged that it was done by a “Congress-inspired person”, reported ANI. “We don’t get deterred by these criminal elements in the society. We condemn this action,” he added.

“It is very unfortunate, whoever did this or did on someone’s instruction.” BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli told Navbharat Times. “This is undignified behaviour and has no place in democracy.”

Politicians such as Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, LK Advani, Omar Abdullah and Arvind Kejriwal have been attacked in a similar way before.