UP court gives Rahul bail in 2018 defamation case

PTI, Feb 20, 2024, 12:53 PM IST

A special court on Tuesday gave Congress leader Rahul Gandhi bail in a defamation case filed by a BJP leader for his remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2018. Gandhi, who could not attend the last hearing in the special MP-MLA court on January 18 as he was busy with his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, appeared in court today.

He was granted bail by Judge Yogesh Yadav after filling bail bonds, his counsel Kashi Prasad Shukla told reporters.

BJP leader Vijay Mishra filed the case on August 4, 2018 for Gandhi’s alleged objectionable comments against Shah at a press conference in Bengaluru on May 8, 2018 during the Karnataka elections.

The complainant referred to Gandhi’s comment that the BJP claims to believe in honest and clean politics but has a party president who is an ”accused” in a murder case. Shah was BJP president when Gandhi made the remark.

About four years before Gandhi’s remark, a special CBI court in Mumbai discharged Shah in a 2005 fake encounter case when he was a minister of state for home in Gujarat.

”The BJP is the biggest party of the country. Calling its (then) president a murderer is unjustifiable,” Mishra told reporters on Tuesday.

He said Gandhi had skipped several summonses.