In the criminal defamation case filed by Ajay Patel, Chairman of Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank against Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Surjewala, the metropolitan Court said on Monday that after examining the documents it appears there is a prima facea case of defamation.
The court also issues summons and fixed May 27 when it asked Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Spokesman Randeep Surjewala to be present in the court. The two leaders had alleged that the co-op bank was involved in dubious transactions in the wake of demonetization.
Ajay Patel and the Bank did not let the matter pass and filed the two criminal defamation cases against the two Congress leaders. His main argument was that due to their defamatory statement, the bank’s business may suffer as depositors may get doubts in their minds.
Patel, a close aide of Amit Shah says that the Congress leaders have defamed the bank and we have to safeguard its honor. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S K Gadhvi had ordered a court enquiry into the matter under section 202 of the CrPC.
It bears recall that an RTI query had revealed that Ahmadabad District Cooperative Bank had netted the highest deposits among co-op banks of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes during demonetization.
Rahul Gandhi had tweeted that it is a scam of more than Rs 745 crore. ADCB and Patel submitted before the court CDs and documents to buttress their points. They say that the statement was false because the bank did not exchange such a huge amount.
The legal fight is sure to be interesting. In fact, Congress party has been training its guns on the bank for the last two years with former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan accusing Amit Shah of being part of the nexus which ensured huge deposits of notes.
Congress had demanded a white paper and also a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the deposits. It also demanded that the Gujarat government release footage of the CDs of the CCTV cameras installed at the Ashram Road Branch, “the headquarters-branch of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative bank”.
BJP Spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad had earlier threatened to sue Congress for dragging the name of BJP President in unsubstantiated charges.
