Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been summoned by a Patna MP-MLA court to record his statement on April 12 in a defamation suit filed against him by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

The case pertains to Rahul Gandhi's "all thieves are Modi" remark, which he had made during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign in Karnataka.

On March 23, Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark. A complaint was filed by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi, following which a case against Rahul Gandhi was lodged.

A day after the court sentence, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a member of Lok Sabha. He was an MP from Kerala's Wayanad constituency.

Raising the pitch against the BJP over Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha, Congress leaders and workers have been holding protests across the country.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have accused the PM Narendra Modi-led Centre of "trying to silence" a "martyr's son" for raising the voice of the people.

(With inputs from agencies)