New Delhi: On Tuesday, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was forced to apologise to the Supreme Court for "wrongly attributing the 'Chowkidar chor hai'" comment to the top court during a speech at an election rally, in connection with the Rafale order. The top court made scathing observations regarding the affidavits filed by Gandhi where he had expressed "regret" for his comments.  The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard the contempt of court petition filed against Congress chief Rahul Gandhi by BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi. The SC bench, lead by CJI Ranjan Gogoi, asked Abhishek Manu Singhvi, counsel of Rahul Gandhi, to tell them where the court had called PM Narendra Modi “chor”. The SC bench also said, “When did we call PM chor? Now you are trying to justify it too?”

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Meanwhile, Mukul Rohatgi, who is representing Lekhi, pointed out that Gandhi had only expressed his “regret” and had “not apologised” for suggesting at a public rally that the SC had endorsed his claim that “Chowkidar chor hai” referring to PM Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale deal. Gandhi had submitted a second affidavit in the matter on Monday, expressing his “regret” for the statement, similar to his comment in the first affidavit. Notably, the CJI also asked Gandhi’s counsel to explain what he meant by “regret within brackets” in his affidavit.   Meanwhile, after a scathing observation from the top court, Gandhi's counsel Singhvi has asked more time to file a fresh affidavit in the matter.

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To be noted that the Supreme Court also stated that there was a "contradiction" in Gandhi's affidavit as he had both "expressed regret and justified his comment." "Do you need 22 pages to express regret," the SC asked the Congress chief, referring to his affidavit.