Rahul Gandhi tenders unconditional apology to SC

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday tendered “unconditional apology” to the Supreme Court for attributing his statement 'Prime Minister Narendra Modi Chowkidar is thief' to the top court.

Days after rebuke from the Supreme Court, Rahul, who had twice expressed regret, filed a fresh affidavit, stating that he has “never sought or intended to, directly or indirectly, commit any act that interferes with the process of the administration of justice”.

The top court had on April 30 told him that he cannot contradict himself by expressing regret for attributing his remarks 'PM Narendra Modi, Chowkidar is thief' to the top court and then go on justifying it. In his two affidavits, filed earlier, Rahul had only expressed regret.

In a three-page affidavit, Rahul said, “the deponent unconditionally apologises for the wrongful attribution to the court. The deponent further states that any such attributions were entirely unintentional, non-wilful and inadvertent.”

He was allowed to file a fresh affidavit by the court, which gave him a third chance, to apologise for attributing his statement to the court. The statement was made in Amethi and Katihar soon after the court had on April 10 allowed admissibility of certain secret documents to reconsider the Rafale judgement, that had dismissed a plea for probe into the purchase of fighter jet deal from France in 2016.

The court has issued a notice to Rahul in a criminal contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who contended that he had committed the grossest form of contempt and misled the nation as the court was not dealing with his political slogan.

On April 30, the court allowed him to file a fresh affidavit but made it clear that the admissibility and acceptance of any affidavit would be considered on May 10.