New Delhi: Congress leader Jaswant Gurjar has filed a petition in Jaipur Metropolitan Court-11 against BJP national president JP Nadda and the party's IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya over a social media post by the saffron party, showing Rahul Gandhi as 'a new age Ravan'.
In his petition, the general secretary of Congress’ Rajasthan unit has pleaded that a case be registered against both BJP leaders under IPC Section 499 (false imputation against another person), 500 (defamation), 504 (intentional insult).
"The petition has been admitted by the court and the hearing for the case has been scheduled on October 9," Gurjar said.
A photograph of Rahul Gandhi morphed as Ravan on a poster put out by the Bharatiya Janata Party's official handle on X (formerly Twitter) stirred controversy, triggering strong criticism from the Congress, which has called it “unacceptable” and "downright dangerous".
The poster showed Gandhi with several heads, with the title "Bharat Khatre Mein Hai - A Congress party production. Directed by George Soros". The post accompanying the poster said, “The new age Ravan is here. He is evil. Anti-Dharma. Anti-Ram. His aim is to destroy Bharat.”
"The accused publicised the post deliberately with ill-intention on October 5 and the aim of the accused is to insult and to harm the goodwill of Congress and people associated with it and to make political gains," the plea said, adding that the BJP leaders deliberately presented Gandhi as anti-Ram and anti-religion to instigate people against him.
The petitioner has pleaded before the court to get the statements of both the accused recorded and get the matter investigated.
The Congress party has protested against the poster at several places across the country.
George Soros, a Hungarian-born American financier, philanthropist, and activist, had come under fire from the BJP after he made critical comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the wake of a report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research on the Adani Group.
With inputs from PTI