NEW DELHI: Reiterating that he would not apologise for the ‘Modi’ surname remark that led to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told the Supreme Court that using the criminal process and its consequences under the Representation of the People’s Act to arm-twist him into doing so is an abuse of law.
“The petitioner maintains and has always maintained that he is not guilty of the offence and if he had to apologise and compound the offence, he would have done it much earlier. Using the criminal process and the consequences under the Representation of the People’s Act to arm-twist the petitioner into apologising for no fault, is a gross abuse of the judicial process and ought not to be countenanced,” Rahul said in his counter affidavit.
Complainant Purnesh Modi had in his affidavit alleged that Rahul’s statement was made out of personal hatred for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said Rahul had shown arrogance rather than being apologetic about the scurrilous words he used maliciously and recklessly.
In his affidavit, Rahul argued that there is no community or samaj on record going by the name ‘Modi’. Hence, the offence of defaming the Modi community as a whole would not arise as people having the surname Modi may fall into different communities/ castes.