Rahul Gandhi to appear before Ahmedabad court in defamation case

Rahul Gandhi

Ahmedabad: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday is set to appear before a metropolitan magistrate's court in Ahmedabad for the hearing of a criminal defamation suit filed against him by Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank and its chairman Ajay Patel. Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said that Gandhi would appear before the court. "Since the summons was also issued to party's national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, he is also expected to appear tomorrow," said Doshi.

The defamation suit was filed last year after Rahul Gandhi and Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank was involved in a 'scam' to swap Rs 745.59 crore in swapped notes with valid currency within five days of demonetisation announcement on November 8, 2016. It must be noted that Union home minister Amit Shah is one of the directors of the ADC Bank. The court issued summonses to the two leaders on April 9 after finding prima facie evidence against them. The complainants said that the Congress leaders levelled "false and defamatory allegations" against the bank.

The court had conducted an inquiry under section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before summoning Rahul Gandhi and Randeep Surjewala. The section deals with inquiry to decide whether there is sufficient ground for proceeding against a person. Gandhi and Surjewala's allegations were based on the reply given by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to an RTI query of a Mumbai-based activist. ADCB and Patel have denied that the bank exchanged such a huge amount of swapped currency.

Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from PTI

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