india

Updated: Apr 19, 2019 12:03 IST

Lalit Modi, the former Indian Premier League chief, has threatened to sue Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his “all Modis are thieves” remark while targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the election rallies.

“Rahul Gandhi says ‘All Modis are thieves. Well, he will be taken to court in the UK by me. But reality is that the world knows five decades of daylight looting of India was done by none other than the Gandhi family,” Lalit Modi tweeted on Friday morning tagging PM Modi on the micro-blogging site.

He was referring to Gandhi’s attack on PM Modi holding him responsible for the alleged financial irregularities committed by businessman Nirav Modi and the former cricket administrator. Gandhi had earlier this week asked how all “thieves” have ‘Modi’ as the common surname.

“I have a question. Why all thieves have Modi in their names whether it is Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi? We don’t know how many more such Modis will come out,” Gandhi said at a public rally in Maharashtra.

Lalit Modi’s threat to sue Gandhi followed a defamation suit filed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi against the Congress president.

Sushil Modi has filed a criminal complaint before a Bihar court under Section 500 of IPC (punishment for defamation) against Gandhi for the same comment.

In his petition, Sushil Modi said he “felt hurt” by Gandhi’s “sweeping remarks” at the April 13 rally, which was telecast live on TV news channels, as it tarnished the reputation of those who shared the surname. The matter will come up for hearing on April 22.

PM Modi, too, has hit back at Gandhi for the remark. Speaking at a rally in Chhattisgarh this week, he said, “Is it appropriate to use such language? We have to throw out such people. Abusive language has become the norm. The Sahu community here would have been called Modi in Gujarat. Are they all thieves?”

Gandhi has been targeting PM Modi over Rafale deal alleging malfeasance in the Rs 59,000 crore deal. He has alleged that PM Modi scrapped the Rafale deal being negotiated by the previous Congress-led government with the intention of benefiting his “industrialist friend” Anil Ambani, whose Reliance Defence is an offset partner of the Dassault Aviation, the French firm which has got contract for the supply of 36 Rafale fighter jets. Both the government and Ambani have rejected the charge calling it baseless.