‘How all thieves modi?’ Rahul Gandhi’s appearance in Surat court because of saying, said on the questions of the judge – I do not know

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday appeared before a magistrate’s court in Gujarat’s Surat city to record his statement in connection with a criminal defamation case registered against him. The case pertains to a controversial remark on the surname ‘Modi’ during an election rally in 2019. In this case, Rahul has appeared in the court twice before.

The Congress leader replied “I don’t know” to most of the questions asked by the court during Friday’s hearing on the basis of the testimony of two witnesses. These two witnesses include the then election officer of Kolar in Karnataka, where Rahul gave the speech, and a videographer appointed by the Election Commission to shoot the rally.

When asked by the Chief Judicial Magistrate whether he was aware of the appointment of Arun Kumar as the official videographer to shoot the rally, Rahul claimed to be unaware of it and said, “I don’t know”. When asked about the technical details like storing video in a computer, he gave the same answer. Earlier, the Congress leader had appeared in the court on June 24 this year. The magistrate had directed Rahul to appear again in the court on October 29 after recording the statements of two witnesses. He had appeared in the court for the first time on October 2019 in the case and pleaded not guilty.

Purnesh Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s MLA from Surat, had filed a complaint against Rahul in 2019 under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code relating to defamation. The MLA had alleged in his complaint that Rahul, while addressing an election rally in 2019, allegedly insulted the entire ‘Modi community’ by saying ‘how all these thieves have the same surname (surname) Modi? ‘

Purnesh Modi is currently a minister in the Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi…how all these thieves have the same surname,” Rahul had reportedly said at a rally in Kolar, Karnataka on April 13, 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, on Friday. Lawyers of local BJP MLA Purnesh Modi filed an application requesting to summon a person named Chandrappa, who was the then head of the team that watched the video. The magistrate said he would decide on the application on Saturday.