Patna Court Directs Rahul Gandhi To Appear Before It On April 25 In Defamation Case Filed By RS MP Sushil Modi

Following his failure to appear in Court today in the Defamation case filed by Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi, the Patna Court has granted another chance to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to appear on April 25.

The ACJM Cum Special Judge, MP/MLA Court Adi Dev passed this order after Gandhi's counsel, Ansul Kumar informed the Court that due to his prior commitments, he could not appear pursuant to its Court's March 18 order.

Last month, the Court directed Gandhi to appear in court to record his statements under section 313 CrPC in the criminal complaint against him filed by Modi (through Senior Advocate and former Add. Solicitor General of India SD Sanjay) under Section 500 of the IPC (Defamation) over his alleged remark “why all thieves share the Modi surname” made during a political campaign in Karol in April 2019.

It is Modi's case that Gandhi made the derogatory remark targetting people having the 'Modi' surname. Gandhi obtained bail in the case in the year 2019.

Now, today, Modi's Counsel moved an application before the Court for the issuance of an arrest warrant against Congres leader Rahul Gandhi for his failure to appear in Court in the defamation case filed by Modi. Modi's counsels submitted that Gandhi had disregarded Court's order to prolong the case proceedings and therefore, his bail be canceled and an arrest warrant be issued.

It may be noted that in this case, on Behalf of Sushil Modi, several witnesses have already appeared in the court and have recorded their statements including the then road construction minister in Bihar Government Nitin Nabin, president of BJYM Bihar Manish Kumar, senior advocate SD Sanjay, Senior Advocate Subodh Jha, Advocate Arjun Kumar, and Advocate Ratnesh Kumar.