SURAT: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi appeared before the court of chief judicial magistrate AN Dave in Surat on Thursday and denied making any defamatory remarks against people with ‘Modi’ surname.
A criminal defamation case was filed against him by BJP MLA from Surat West seat Purnesh Modi in April 2019 over the Gandhi scion’s remarks made during a rally at Kolar in Karnataka in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
When the magistrate asked him if he had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave Rs 30 crore to an industrialist, Gandhi told the court that being a national leader, he keeps raising issues of corruption and unemployment in his addresses in the interest of the nation, and it is his right to raise do so.
Gandhi’s lawyer Kirit Panwala said, “The complainant in the case has submitted three different applications to stall the process of registering further statements of Gandhi.
But the court rejected the applications.” “There is no community with the name of Modi, hence it is not possible to defame it,” Gandhi said in the court, according to Panwala.
Gandhi also denied that he ever said that people with Modi surname are thieves, an allegation levelled by the MLA in his complaint.
Besides, to most of the remaining questions related to the evidence and statements of witnesses in the case, Gandhi said “I don’t know”.
Earlier, the Congress leader had appeared before the court in October 2019 and pleaded not guilty for his comment.
A week back, CJM Dave directed Gandhi to remain present on June 24 to record his statement in the case.
Meanwhile, the legislator has approached the Gujarat high court seeking to call Kolar district collector and a videographer, who recorded the speech, as witnesses in the case.
Next hearing in the case is scheduled on July 12.
Gandhi arrived in a chartered flight from Delhi and directly went to court.
After the court proceedings, he left for Delhi.