Rahul Gandhi Appears Before UP Court In Defamation Case Over Remarks On Amit Shah, Next Hearing On Aug 12

Rahul Gandhi appeared before the MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh for a hearing in a defamation case.

Rahul Gandhi Defamation Case: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi appeared before the MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur on Friday for a hearing in a defamation case pertaining to remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The next hearing in the case wll be held on August 12.

The Congress leader appeared before the court in connection with a defamation case filed against him for allegedly making objectionable remarks about Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

On Thursday, Congress district president Abhishek Singh Rana said that Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, will land at Lucknow airport on Friday morning and then proceed towards Sultanpur.

Implicated Due To Political Rivalry: Rahul Gandhi Tells Judge  

During the hearing, Rahul Gandhi told the judge that he was implicated in the case as a part of a political rivalry. The judge asked four questions to the Lok Sabha LoP. "I did not give any such statement in the press conference in Bengaluru," Gandhi said in the court. Witnesses in the case will appear on behalf of Chairman Vijay Mishra's advocate on August 12.

What Is The Case?

A defamation case was filed against the former Congress president by local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Mishra on August 4, 2018, for making alleged objectionable remarks against the then BJP president Shah.

The defamation complaint against Rahul Gandhi was filed in response to his remarks during a press conference in Bengaluru.

During the press conference, Gandhi attacked the BJP and said that the party claimed to believe in honest and clean politics but has a party president who is an "accused" in a murder case, referring to Shah, who was then the BJP chief, according to a Hindustan Times report.

The court granted bail to Gandhi in this case on February 20. Special Magistrate Shubham Verma has summoned Gandhi to record his statement on July 26.

Previous Defamation Cases On Rahul Gandhi

In June, Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by a Bengaluru special court in a separate defamation case filed by the Karnataka BJP unit. The case was related to alleged defamatory advertisements published in mainstream newspapers. According to the complaint filed by the BJP, the party alleged that advertisements in local newspapers and "false campaigning" by the Congress ahead of the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections damaged the image of the saffron party.

Last year in March, Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case over his 'Modi' surname remarks. Later, the Supreme Court paused his conviction in the case, and Rahul Gandhi’s status as a Member of Parliament was restored.