A court in Delhi on Wednesday reserved its order on a complaint urging it to direct the police to register a first information report against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for making derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016. The court will pronounce its verdict on June 7, PTI reported.
At a gathering in Delhi in 2016, Gandhi accused the prime minister of using the deaths of soldiers for political gains, and used the word “dalal [broker]” to describe Modi. “You [Modi] are hiding behind the blood soldiers shed in Kashmir and the blood of those who carried out the surgical strikes for India,” the Congress leader had said. “You are exploiting their sacrifices, which is very wrong.”
Last week, the Delhi Police filed an action taken report in the court after the court issued it directions on April 26 on the basis of advocate Joginder Tuli’s complaint. The police told the court that a defamatory suit might be filed against Gandhi for making the comment, PTI reported.
Tuli had lodged the complaint on April 25, two days after the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Congress president on a contempt petition filed against him by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Meenakshi Lekhi for attributing the “chowkidar chor hai [the watchman is a thief]” to the top court’s verdict in the Rafale deal case. The slogan is used by the Opposition to target Modi for alleged improprieties in the defence agreement. The Congress president subsequently apologised to the court.
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