New Delhi: On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of India issued a contempt notice to Congress president Rahul Gandhi after the leader wrongly attributed his remarks on Rafale deal to the apex court. The scheduled for the next hearing will be done on April 30. The court has exempted Rahul Gandhi from personal appearance on April 30 in the contempt case. 

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member Parliament Meenakshi Lekhi, who is contesting from New Delhi, had moved the Supreme Court and filed a contempt petition against Rahul Gandhi after the latter claimed that the Supreme Court had said ‘chowkidar chor hai’.

In her petition, she claimed that “the words used and attributed by Rahul Gandhi to Supreme Court in the Rafale case has been made to appear something else. He is replacing his personal statement as the Supreme Court’s order and trying to create prejudice.” Rahul in his defense expressed regret over his remarks and said his statement was made in the “heat of (election) campaigning”, while adding that the same has been misused by his political opponents.

Rahul Gandhi had said that the Supreme Court has made it “clear” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “committed a theft” in the Rafale deal on April 10. He had gone on to claim that the “Supreme Court in its judgment said ‘Chowkidar Narendra Modi chor hai’.” Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of Meenakshi Lekhi, told the apex court “Rahul Gandhi admits that he had made the wrong statement but he did not read the order and that he said it in a eurohphic manner”.

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