Gujarat court summons AAP leader in defamation suit over Rafale allegations

New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh on Wednesday received a summons from an Ahmedabad court in a defamation suit filed by the Reliance Group over his allegations of a scam in the Rafale deal.

The Ahmedabad City Civil and Sessions Court has asked Singh to "provide a written submission" before the court on October 20 in relation to the Rs 5,000-crore civil defamation suit. 

Singh told IANS that he stood by what had he said, because everything that he had said until now had "turned out to be true in the past few days".

"I spoke the truth and the things that I had earlier claimed are turning out to be true. Hence, I will stand by what I had said earlier about the scam in the Rafale deal and I will not change my stance in the court," he said.

"I will keep fighting for truth in the name of 'Bharat Mata' and I will continue raising my voice against this scam," he added.

Anil Ambani's Reliance Group had filed the suit in February this year over "false, distorted and malicious insinuations" made by the Aam Aadmi Party MP in connection with the Rafale deal. 

In a press briefing on February 13, Sanjay Singh had raised "suspicions" regarding the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault in a government-to-government contract. 

He had said that the Rafale deal is "the deal of scams", alleging that a contract worth Rs 22,000 crore was awarded to Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence, even though the company lacked experience in the field.