Mumbai : The Mumbai Samajwadi Party (SP) Tuesday filed a defamation complaint against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his comments in Uttar Pradesh the day before, a party leader said.
SP city vice-president Farooque Ghosi lodged a complaint in Bandra East in south Mumbai, protesting against Gandhi’s comments in which he allegedly referred to people of Uttar Pradesh in Maharashtra as “beggars”.
“For how long would UP youths go and beg in Maharashtra,” Gandhi had asked while addressing a rally in Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh Monday afternoon, kicking off the Congress campaign for the ensuing assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Ghosi later followed up the police complaint by filing a complaint before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate V.S. Patil in Bandra.
“The case (complaint) has been filed under Indian Penal Code section 500 pertaining to defamation and section 504 dealing with insult. The matter has been placed for further consideration by the court Dec 14,” Ghosi’s lawyer Manoj Tiwari said.
The comments have evoked sharp protests and reactions from people hailing from Uttar Pradesh living and working in Maharashtra.
Coming down heavily on Gandhi, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray Monday blamed the Congress which ruled Uttar Pradesh for so many years and doing nothing for the people there, and reducing them to “beggars”.
IANS
