Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today appeared before a magistrate's court in Surat to record his statement in connection with a criminal defamation case filed against him over his "Modi surname"-remark.
This was the third time the Congress MP appeared before the court in connection with the 2019 case.
During Friday's hearing, the Congress leader replied "I don't know" to most of the questions asked by the court on the basis of recent testimonies of two witnesses - the then electoral officer of Kolar in Karnataka where Gandhi had made the speech, and a videographer appointed by the Election Commission to shoot that rally.
He said "I don't know" when Chief Judicial Magistrate AN Dave asked if he knew about the appointment of Arun Kumar as the official videographer to shoot the rally.
He gave the same reply when asked about other technical details such as storage of that video in a computer.
The court had on October 26 directed Rahul Gandhi to appear before it between 3 pm and 6 pm today to record his statement.
The former Congress president landed at the Surat Airport this afternoon and headed to the court.
Chief Judicial Magistrate AN Dave had earlier asked Rahul Gandhi to appear on October 29 to record his statement further, after testimonies of two new witnesses were taken since the Congress leader last appeared before the court on June 24 this year.
Prior to it, the Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad in Kerala had appeared before the court in October 2019 and pleaded not guilty for his comment.
BJP legislator from Surat Purnesh Modi had filed a complaint against Rahul Gandhi in April 2019 under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that deal with defamation.
In his complaint, the MLA had alleged that Rahul Gandhi, while addressing a poll rally in 2019, defamed the entire Modi community by purportedly saying, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?"
Purnesh Modi is now a minister in the Gujarat government led by new Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and has portfolios of road and building, transport, civil aviation, and tourism and pilgrimage development.
Since Rahul Gandhi's last appearance before the court, testimonies were taken of two more witnesses - the then electoral officer of Kolar in Karnataka, where the Congress leader made the controversial remark, and a videographer employed by the Election Commission to record his speech.
During his address at the rally in Kolar on April 13, 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi had allegedly asked, "Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi... how come they all have Modi as the common surname?"
