DNA India: Ahmedabad: Wednesday,
May 29, 2019.
The allegations were made by
Gandhi and Surjewala on the basis of a response given by the National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development to an RTI query filed by a Mumbai-based
activist.
A court here has asked
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to appear before it in connection with criminal
defamation suits filed against him by the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank
and its chairman Ajay Patel.
The complainants had moved
the court last year after Gandhi and Congress national spokesperson Randeep
Singh Surjewala reportedly alleged that the bank was involved in a
"scam" to convert scrapped notes worth Rs 745.59 crore within five
days of demonetisation announcement on November 8, 2016.
Gandhi was on April 9
summoned by the court of Additional Metropolitan Magistrate SK Gadhvi to appear
before it on May 27.
But his counsel Monday sought
more time for his client's appearance on the ground that the documents
pertaining to testimonies of the complainants and witnesses were yet to be
translated into English from Gujarati.
Gandhi's counsel also
submitted before the court that his client will be at Shantivan in New Delhi on
May 27 to pay tribute to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his
death anniversary.
The court then fixed July 12
for Gandhi to appear before it. It also asked Surjewala to appear before it on
the same date.
The court had issued
summonses to the two leaders on April 9 after finding prima facie evidence
against them.
The complainants have said
that the two leaders levelled "false and defamatory allegations"
against the bank.
Based on testimonies of Patel
as well as three other witnesses recorded on August 27 last year, the court had
conducted an inquiry under section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)
before summoning Gandhi and Surjewala.
The CrPC section deals with
inquiry into a case to decide whether or not there is sufficient ground for
proceeding. BJP president Amit Shah is one of the directors of the ADCB.
The allegations were made by
Gandhi and Surjewala on the basis of a response given by the National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development to an RTI query filed by a Mumbai-based
activist.
In the pleas filed through
their lawyer, the ADCB and Patel had submitted before the court that the
statements made by the two Congress leaders were false because the bank did not
exchange such a huge amount of money.
They had said the bank did
not have so much (demonetised) money to exchange and claims of Gandhi and
Surjewala were defamatory.
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