Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s son Kartikey Chouhan submitted before a court here Saturday that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi deliberately linked him with the Panama Papers leak.
Kartikey recorded his statement before Special Judge (for cases against MPs and MLAs) Suresh Singh in the defamation case filed by him against Gandhi.
The court fixed 17 December as the date for submission of evidence in support of the complaint, Kartikey’s lawyer Shrey Raj Saxena told PTI. Gandhi made the statement deliberately to defame Kartikey and his father who is the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh since 2005, Saxena quoted the chief minister’s son as telling the court.
The Congress chief clarified later that he named Kartikey out of confusion, but did not tender an apology, the lawyer told the court. At a Congress rally at Jhabua in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, the Gandhi scion had alleged that Kartikey’s name figured in the Panama Papers leak, a global investigation into offshore money-laundering entities.
However, the next day, the Congress chief said he named Kartikey Chouhan out of “confusion.” On 30 October, Kartikey filed a defamation case under sections 499 and 500 of the IPC, against Gandhi.