A criminal defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was filed by former deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi in Patna on Tuesday.

Based on the speech of Rahul Gandhi in Kolar on April 13, 2019, Sushil Modi, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP said that it was a derogatory statement on people having surname Modi.

Rahul Gandhi, during a public meeting in Kolar district of Karnataka, had said that PM Narendra Modi imposed demonetisation in the country and put entire countrymen in the queues of banks.

“He (Narendra Modi) has partially restricted the money of common people to withdraw from banks and the money of common people would be given to his 15 friends,” Gandhi said in his speech.

“There is a group of thieves. They have a team. They are taking money from your pockets, snatching the money from farmers, small traders and giving it to those 15 friends. Claiming that it is a fight against black money, PM Narendra Modi put you in the queues of banks, took the money from your pockets and deposited into the banks and then you learnt that your money has been taken away by Nirav Modi who fled the country with Rs 35,000 crore,” Gandhi had said.

“There is a long list of names apart from Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Lalit Modi. Now, I want to ask a small question. Why do all thieves have Modi as their name?. Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi and if we search more, we will get some more Modi,” Gandhi said.

“Rahul Gandhi in a statement, had said that all people having Modi surnames are thieves. He (Sushil Modi) is also having Modi surname and as it was election time, his statement may influence the voters. Hence, he has filed a criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi,” said SD Sanjay, senior lawyer and former solicitor general of Bihar told IANS.

On Behalf of Sushil Modi Sanjiv Chaurasia, appeared in the court as witness for trial. Besides him, road construction minister Nitin Nabin, Manish Kumar, president of BJYM Bihar senior advocate SD Sanjay, Senior Advocate Subodh Jha, Advocate Arjun Kumar and Advocate Ratnesh Kumar appeared in the court on behalf of Sushil Modi.

“On Tuesday, the court recorded the statement of Sanjiv Chaurasia. Though, our two more witnesses Nitin Nabin and Manish Kumar were also present in the court but their statements were not registered in the court due to lack of time,” Sanjay said.

“The next hearing of the case is scheduled on April 22. We expect that the statements of Nitin Nabin and Manish Kumar will be recorded in the next hearing,” Sanjay said.

(With IANS inputs)