Punish those making frivolous charges against Rahul, says Cong

"A heinous conspiracy was launched to destroy the political career of Rahul Gandhi. The plot is based on lies proliferated in the public domain and on the internet since 2006.

"The Congress party welcomes yesterday's decision of the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, which dismisses the lies as "wild allegations/insinuation," party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters here.

Noting that the court has also directed the CBI to register cases against "all persons who are found to be involved in the plot hatched in order to frame up Rahul Gandhi", she demanded that the investigating agency should identify the "orginal culprits" responsible for hatching this plot.

"Congress demands that all those persons and institutions responsible for this conspiracy be punished," Natarajan said.

The party's reaction came a day after the Allahabad High Court on Monday came down hard on people filing frivolous petitions and slapped a penalty of Rs 50 lakh on a former SP MLA who alleged that Rahul Gandhi had kept in captivity a girl and her parents, a charge which later turned out to be false.

The Lucknow bench of the High Court also ordered a CBI probe against the former legislator from Madhya Pradesh Kishore Samrite who had moved a habeas corpus petition against the AICC general secretary.

The order was passed by a division bench of justices Umanath Singh and Satish Chandra after the girl, Sukanya, who according to the petitioner was held captive by Rahul, denied any such incident when she was produced in court.

The court also ordered action against a website displaying news items relating to Sukanya's alleged abduction.

Samrite had alleged that Sukanya and her parents were held captive by Rahul and sought directions to the police for producing them in court.

A similar petition was filed by Gajendra Pal Singh, who claimed to be a relative of Sukanya, after which the court ordered the DGP to produce the girl and her parents before it.

As per the court order issued on Friday last, Director General of Police Karamveer Singh produced the girl and her parents before the court.

The girl told the court that her actual name is Kirti Singh and that Balram Singh and Sushila are her parents and their identification was done by incharge of Amethi police station.

Kirti told the court that neither she nor her parents were under illegal detention of any person nor has she any information regarding the news item being displayed by the website.