BHOPAL: A day after Rahul Gandhi’s gaffe about Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s son’s name appearing in the Panama Papers, the CM’s elder son Kartikey filed a criminal defamation suit against the Congress chief in a Bhopal court on Tuesday.
The complaint was filed by Kartikey Singh Chouhan via counsel Sirish Srivastava in the court of special judge Suresh Singh under Sections 499 and 500 of IPC, which deal with defamation. Srivastava told journalists that Kartikey’s statements will be recorded before the court on November 3.
“Rahul Gandhi being the president of a national party has not made the defamatory statement by mistake, but has done it intentionally to malign the reputation of the CM, his son and family ahead of assembly elections, which is a clear cut case of defamation,” he said.
“Never ever has it appeared anywhere that either CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan or any of his family members’ names has appeared in either Panama Paper or any other leaks.
The statements are intentional and out of ill will.”
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi tried to play down the issue “Frankly speaking whenever I go to Chhattisgarh, MP, Telangana and Rajasthan, I find scams by the BJP everywhere, owing to which I made the statement in confusion.”
On Monday, Rahul had made the gaffe while addressing the Parivartan Rally at the Jhabua College Ground in Jhabua district of Malwa-Nimar region of poll-bound MP.