SC Contempt Notice Against Rahul Over Chowkidar Remark

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued a contempt notice against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on the Rafale judgment, which the apex court had said were “incorrectly attributed” to it, reports moneycontrol.com.

The apex court said it will hear on April 30 the criminal contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Rahul along with the pending review petition against the December 14, 2018 verdict in the Rafale jet deal. It rejected Rahul’s plea to close the criminal contempt petition filed by Lekhi.

Rahul had admitted on Monday that he had misquoted the Supreme Court after its ruling on the Rafale deal and said he had done it as “rhetorical flourish in the heat of political campaigning”, without having seen, read or analysed the order.

“My political opponents wrongly projected that I had deliberately and intentionally suggested that the Supreme Court had said ‘chowkidar chor hai’. Nothing could be farther from my mind,” he had said in his affidavit to the Supreme Court on Monday.

On April 10, the Supreme Court had ruled that classified documents accessed by the media can be used as evidence to consider requests to review its clean chit to the Rafale deal. Hours later, Rahul Gandhi cheered the order with the “chowkidar” slogan that has become central in the Congress attack on PM Modi.