New Delhi, Apr 12
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking contempt action against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for attributing his remarks on the recent Rafale verdict to the apex court.A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it will hear the plea on April 15.
Lekhi in her plea said Gandhi has attributed his personal remarks to the top court and tried to create prejudice.Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Lekhi, told the bench that Congress president made a remark that the “Supreme Court has said, chowkidaar chor hai” in the verdict.The BJP also approached the Election Commission seeking action against Gandhi for repeatedly calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi “a thief” and also attributing to the Supreme Court things it did not say in the Rafale jet case. A BJP delegation comprising Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi met EC officials here and also alleged that the poll panel had ignored their earlier complaints against Gandhi on the issue.”The Congress President is using abusive words and statements that are untrue. He is repeatedly calling the Prime Minister ‘chor’ without any evidence despite the Supreme Court’s December verdict in the Rafale case, and also putting words into the mouth of Supreme Court,” Sitharaman told reporters.”We have complained to the EC that neither the SC nor the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) have said anything of this kind. But the EC did not take cognizance. It looked the other way.””During election time if he is uttering words which are untrue, can the Election Commission ignore it?” the BJP leader asked. “The Supreme Court has made it clear that ‘chowkidarji’ (watchman) has committed a theft,” Gandhi told reporters after filing his nomination papers in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
