Noteban: Court summons Rahul Gandhi, Randeep Surjewala

A metropolitan court in Ahmedabad on Monday issued summons to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his colleague Randeep Surjewala in connection with two separate criminal defamation cases filed by Ahmedabad District Cooperative (ADC) bank through its chairman Ajay Patel. BJP president Amit Shah is one of the directors of the bank.

The metropolitan magistrate S K Gadhvi issued summons to Gandhi and Surjewala and directed them to remain present before the court on May 27. While issuing summons, the court held that there is a prima facie case against the two top leaders.

ADC bank had moved the court through its chairman Ajay Patel for remarks made by Gandhi and Surjewala on the bank based on information obtained through Right to Information (RTI).

On June 22 last year, Surjewala had held a press conference where he alleged that the bank had exchanged a whopping Rs 745.58 crore worth of banned notes in just five days after demonetisation was announced in 2016.

Surjewala had sought probe into RTI revelation and alleged that it “exposed an attempt to convert black money into white money in the guise of demonetisation”.

He also claimed that chairman of the bank Ajay Patel is a “close associate of BJP president Amit Shah who is a director and former chairman of the bank”.

The Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi too attacked the BJP from his Twitter handle where he wrote, “Congratulations Amit Shah ji, Director, Ahmedabad Dist Cooperative Bank, on your bank winning 1st prize in the conversion of old notes to new race. 750 Cr in 5 days! Millions of Indian whose lives were destroyed by Demonetisation, salute your achievement.”

The tweet had a picture of Shah that said, “THE DIRECTOR of the bank that collected the highest number of demonetised notes… The PRESIDENT of the party that got 80% richer after demonetisation.”

Following the uproar, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development clarified that the average deposit amount in the ADC bank was Rs 46,795 per account holder, which is lower than the average per depositor in 18 district cooperative banks of Gujarat.