Rahul Gandhi seeks discharge from ADC Bank defamation case

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi onWednesday sought discharge from a criminal defamation casefiled against him by the Ahmedabad District Cooperative (ADC)Bank on the grounds of continuous absence of the complainant.

The court had rejected two applications filed bybank chairman Ajay Patel, the complainant, seeking exemptionfrom appearance and adjournment of the hearing, said Gandhi'slawyer P S Champaneri.

Patel did not attend the hearing on several occasions,the lawyer claimed.

After Patel's pleas were rejected, Gandhi's lawyermoved the application for discharge before Additional ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate S P Dulera.

''The effect of the rejection of these two applicationsleads to relieving of the accused from the case. So we moveddischarge application under the Code of Criminal Procedure,''advocate Champaneri said.

The court will hear Gandhi's application on February11.

The ADC Bank and Patel dragged Gandhi to the courtover the Congress leader's allegation that the bank wasinvolved in a scam as it swapped scrapped notes of Rs 750crore with valid currency within five days of demonetizationin 2016.PTI KA PDKRK KRK