Surat: A court in Surat Thursday issued summons to Rahul Gandhi in response to a criminal defamation suit filed by Gujarat BJP MLA Purnesh Modi over the Congress president’s ‘how come all thieves have Modi as common surname’ remark. Chief Judicial Magistrate of Surat, BH Kapadia, issued summons to Rahul, directing him to be present before the court, June 7.
Purnesh had filed the complaint against Rahul under IPC sections 499 and 500 that deal with defamation, April 16. In his complaint, the MLA from Surat-West seat claimed the Congress president was defaming the entire Modi community by saying all ‘Modis are thieves’.
Purnesh was referring to an election rally April 13 at Kolar in Karnataka, where Rahul asked, ‘Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi…how come they all have Modi as common surname. How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”
While talking to reporters after filing his defamation suit last month, Purnesh had claimed that Rahul’s remark has defamed the entire Modi community.
“There are a large number of people with Modi surname. Does it mean all members of the Modi community are thieves? He has defamed the community and also me as I carry the surname. This is why we have moved a complaint (against Gandhi) in a Surat court,” the MLA had said.
It should be stated here that earlier Wednesday a court in Ahmedabad had issued summons to Rahul in response to a criminal defamation suit filed by a BJP worker for calling BJP chief Amit Shah a ‘murder accused’.