Ranchi court issues summons to Rahul Gandhi over 'Modi-thieves' remark

New Delhi: A Ranchi civil court issued summons to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after a complaint was filed in the court over his "Modi is thief" statement. The former Congress president has been asked to appear before the court on February 22. The court had earlier issued summons to him to appear on January 18.

Gandhi had made the purported remarks while campaigning for the Lok Sabha election on March 23, 2019. Rahul had stated, "Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi... how come they all have Modi as common surname? How come all thieves have Modi as common surname? We don't know how many more such Modis will come out."

A complaint was registered against Rahul for his 'Modi is thief' statement by one Pradeep Modi in a civil court in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal. "If you want to say such things, please say it to the person concerned. Talking about a community is objectionable. When I came to the court today, a few of my friends made fun of me. After getting hurt because of this, I have filed this defamation suit," the petitioner said.

The Congress had come out in support of Mr Gandhi and his remarks, claiming his remarks had been directed at allegations of corruption against businessmen Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi and were meant to highlight the failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring them to justice. "In a democracy, party in power should tolerate criticism of opposition. Rahulji had said Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi are thieves and Narendra Modi is a failure. BJP connected his statement to Modi community and insulted them," Shaktisinh Gohil, a Bihar Congress leader, had told ANI earlier.

The Congress party declared the case as a 'transparent attempt to silence the truth'.