Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court's criminal contempt notice against him on Tuesday, BJP leader Anil Baluni said the Congress chief has lost his credibility and people no longer trust him because he makes false allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Attacking the Congress president, BJP's national media in-charge Baluni said, "Rahul Gandhi has lost his credibility completely by making false and baseless allegations against our honest Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

Baluni said people are watching the way Gandhi is speaking "blatant lies". "They are standing with the prime minister and don't trust him," the BJP leader said.

Earlier Tuesday, the apex court, when issuing the notice to Gandhi, exempted him from personal appearance. The criminal contempt case filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi will come up for hearing on April 30.

Lekhi's petition will be heard along with the pending review petitions against the December 14, 2018, verdict in the Rafale fighter jet deal, the court said.

It rejected Gandhi's plea to close the criminal contempt petition.

On April 15, the apex court had clarified that in its Rafale judgment, there was no occasion for it to make a mention of the contemptuous observation that "chowkidar Narendra Modi chor hai" (watchman Narendra Modi is a thief), as has been attributed to it by Gandhi.

The Congress president expressed regret in the apex court on Monday over his remarks.

Dubbing Gandhi as a liar "of the first order", the BJP had demanded an apology from him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)