New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has approached the Bombay High Court seeking to quash a defamation complaint filed against him. The complaint is related to his remarks that allegedly linked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh.
In his petition, Gandhi argued that the case against him can not be clubbed with that filed against Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury as they made the statements in question on different occasions and belong to two different parties with distinct or even opposite ideologies, reported news agency PTI.
Justice S V Kotwal has scheduled the hearing for December 5.
Gauri Lankesh, a Bengaluru-based journalist and activist, was murdered outside her home on September 5, 2017, allegedly by right-wing extremists, PTI reported.
According to the news agency, Dhrutiman Joshi, a lawyer, filed a private complaint before a magistrate in 2017 against Rahul Gandhi, his mother and fellow Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, and Yechury, seeking action against them for alleged defamation under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code.
In 2019, the magistrate's court dismissed the case against Sonia Gandhi but issued notice to Rahul Gandhi and Yechury.
Subsequently, both of them filed an application seeking to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that they should not be put on trial jointly. However, the magistrate's court rejected the application, following which Rahul Gandhi moved the HC in August this year.
As per the Congress leader's petition, he and Yechury belong to different political parties, having very distinct and even opposite ideologies, and a joint trial will cause prejudice to Gandhi's case.
"The statements made by Accused No 1 (Gandhi) and 3 (Yechury) are independent statements made by different individuals at different points of time and there is no community of purpose, continuity of action by which it could be inferred that what they have spoken is in consequence of common design and their acts are connected with each other," the plea said.
The Congress leader is facing several defamation cases across the country. Earlier this year, he was convicted by a Surat court but the conviction was eventually stayed by the Supreme Court.