Patna, Aug 27 (IANS): BJP Rajya Sabha member and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Friday recorded his statement in a defamation case he had filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his statement during 2019 Lok Sabha election that "all Modis are thieves".
He had filed the case in the Patna court for cases against MLAs-MLCs in April 12 this year.
Gandhi, during a public meeting in Karnataka in April 2019, slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for imposing demonetisation in the country, alleging the money of "common people would be given to his 15 industrialist friends".
Claiming that under demonetisation, "PM Narendra Modi is saying to people that it is a fight against black money, putting you in the queues of banks, taking the money from your pockets and depositing into the banks and then you learnt about your money taken away by Nirav Modi, who fled from the country with Rs 35,000 crore, he had said: "There is a long list of names apart from Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi is the other name, Lalit Modi. Now, I want to ask a small question. Why do all thieves have names Modi... Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi and if we search more, we will get some more Modi.."
Sushil Modi termed it a derogatory statement on people having the surname Modi.
"Rahul Gandhi, in a statement, had said that all people having the Modi surname are thieves. It was a derogatory statement of Rahul Gandhi against those having the surname. He had mocked those persons having Modi surname. His statement at that time of election may influence the voters. Hence, I filed a criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi," Sushil Modi said.
On the resignation of senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, he said that the Congress is a drowning ship, and after allying with it, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is aboard on that ship, will also drown.
"The reverse countdown of the JD-U has started now. The RJD needs just 4 to 5 MLAs to form the government and 4 MLAs of the HAM can change their goalpost anytime. Nitish Kumar cannot save his own JD-U from a split. If Tejashwi Yadav goes to jail in the IRCTC scam, the JD-U will break the RJD in Bihar. Both the parties are looking for opportunities to break each other's parties," he alleged.