The Congress party has landed itself in a tight spot as the Ahmedabad District Co-operative Bank (ADCB) has slapped a criminal defamation case against Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala and party president Rahul Gandhi in a metropolitan court on Monday, over their allegations that the bank was involved in a ‘scam’ to convert Rs 750 crore within five days of demonetisation.

The case was filed in lieu of the false and defamatory statements made by the two.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala had claimed that Ajay Patel, the chairman of Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank, which mobilized Rs 745.58 crore worth of banned notes in just four days in November 2016, is a “close associate” of BJP president Amit Shah, who is a director and former chairman of the bank. While demanding a probe into the deposits, Surjewala had said that the RTI reply had “exposed an attempt to convert black into white money in the guise of demonetization”.

Out-on-bail Congress President Rahul Gandhi had alleged that this pointed towards a scam in which Amit Shah was involved.

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Taking to Twitter, Rahul Gandhi had said, “Congratulations Amit Shah Ji, Director, Ahmedabad Dist Cooperative Bank, on your bank winning 1st prize in the conversion of old notes to a new race. 750 Cr in 5 days! Millions of Indian whose lives were destroyed by Demonetisation, salute your achievement.”

These insinuations were made even after NABARD came out with a statement saying, “NABARD conducted 100 % verification in Ahmedabad DCCB which revealed that the bank had complied with all the KYC Guidelines of the RBI while accepting the demonetized notes”. OpIndia too had comprehensively debunked the story being concocted by The Wire and furthered by Rahul Gandhi and Congress leaders.

The metropolitan court has ordered an inquiry into the allegation under section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). “The court prima facie found substance in our complaint and accepted it. A further hearing will be held on September 17,” said Ajit Jadeja, counsel for the petitioner.

He furthered that Surjewala had made claims, that BJP made 81% gains from the transaction, without verifying facts. “Forget about Rs 745 crore, the bank didn’t even have 7% of the amount he claimed,” said Jadeja. The lawyer said that such type of insinuations led to creating doubts in the minds of depositors.”It also affects the new account holders who may want to bank with us,” said Jadeja.

The bank is planning to use video recordings of the press conference and transcripts as evidence against the two ministers to puncture the false allegations made by them against the bank.

The master of self-goals has indulged in such hollow hit-jobs umpteen of times before through friendly media. The Wire is already facing a Rs 100 crores defamation suit for their hit job against Jay Shah, Amit Shah’s son. Rahul Gandhi is also getting sued by the RSS for defamatory statements and recently, Anil Ambai has sued several Congress leaders for Rs 5000 crores for their defamatory statements with regards to the Rafale deal.