Rahul Gandhi should apologise to PM over Rafale issue, says Chandrakant Patil

Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil on Saturday demanded that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi should apologize to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for targeting him on the Rafale fighter jet deal.

"Rahul Gandhi should apologise to PM Modi for creating an issue over the deal and accusing him of false things. After the court's verdict, Rahul Gandhi apologized in the Supreme Court. He must now apologise to the public as well," he said while speaking to media in Mumbai.

The Supreme Court on Thursday accepted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's apology for wrongly attributing his infamous "chowkidar chor hai" remark in Rafale case to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opined that a person holding a place of importance in political spectrum should have been more careful.

The apex court closed the contempt petition filed by BJP lawmaker Meenakshi Lekhi against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks.

"Rahul Gandhi needs to be more careful in the future. It was unfortunate," a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said in their verdict.

Lekhi had accused Gandhi of misquoting the April 10 order of the apex court in which it had allowed additional leaked documents to be put on record as evidence in the Rafale case.

Meanwhile, Rahul on Thursday reiterated Congress' demand for an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the Rafale fighter jet deal with France.