A day after its Saharanpur candidate Imran Masood was arrested for making hate speech against Narendra Modi, Congress on Sunday told the Election Commission that the allegations against Masood were “unverified and distorted”.

It alleged that the BJP had violated the Model Code of Conduct by reacting to such allegations to “malign” its image and demanded that the saffron party be directed to apologise. The Commission may direct “the BJP to tender apology publicly for criticism of INC and its candidate(s) on unverified and distorted allegations or take any other action as may deemed appropriate by the commission,” AICC secretary KC Mittal said in a letter to EC.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday disapproved of Masood’s comments saying they were against the party’s ideology. Mittal said that the BJP had violated the Model Code of Conduct provisions by making false, distorted and unverified statements in public domain. In the speech, which has gone viral on Internet, Masood allegedly threatened to “chop” Modi “into pieces”.

“It is only to malign the Congress by making distorted and unverified statement even though clause 1(2) of the general conduct of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) categorically lays down that such criticism of other parties and their workers shall be avoided,” Mittal said in his letter. The Congress also said that the video of Masood dates back to September 18, 2013, when he was in the Samajwadi Party.

“Even the exact contents of the statement are yet to be verified. Moreover, it is also stated that a person namely, Sher Singh standing by the side of Masood, in the photograph has died long back. However, the matter is still under investigation,” the letter said. The BJP had earlier appealed to EC to take strong action against Congress for “repeatedly” violating the code. Masood was arrested for his hate speech that sparked an outrage and sent to judicial custody for 14 days.