Rahul Gandhi Gets Bail In 2018 Defamation Case Over 'Derogatory' Remarks Against Amit Shah

A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur on Tuesday granted bail to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the 2018 defamation case which pertains to the alleged derogatory remarks made by Rahul against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The leader was granted bail by Judge Yogesh Yadav after filing bail bonds, his counsel Kashi Prasad Shukla said.

The case against the Congress leader was filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra in 2018. Earlier, the civil court had summoned Rahul to appear before it in connection with the case. The grand-old party’s spokesperson Jairam Ramesh had confirmed the summoning, a Times Now report said.

In view of his appearance in court, Rahul Gandhi halted his ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra for the time being. The yatra will reportedly resume at 2 pm.

Taking to X, Ramesh had said, “Today is the 38th day of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which will commence at 2 pm from Fursantganj in Amethi district and move towards Raebareli and Lucknow.”

“This morning @RahulGandhi will be at the District Civil Court in Sultanpur that had issued a summons to him 36 hours earlier to appear before it on a defamation case filed by a BJP leader in August 2018,” Ramesh added.

He said that the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will “not be derailed, Rahul Gandhi will not be silence, Indian National Congress will not be intimidated”.

Meanwhile, the complainant, Vijay Mishra told news agency ANI, “I was the vice president of BJP when this incident occurred. Rahul Gandhi had accused Amit Shah of being a murderer during a conference in Bengaluru. When I heard these allegations, it deeply pained me because I have been dedicated party worker for 33 years. I filed a complaint through my lawyer, and the legal proceedings have continued for almost five years.”

Mishra told reporters, “The BJP is the biggest party of the country. Calling its (then) president a murderer is unjustifiable.” Rahul has also skipped several summonses, Mishra added.

WHAT WAS THE CASE?

The complaint, filed by Vijay Mishra on August 4, 2018, referred to Rahul 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.

At the time of the incident, Shah was the BJP president. And about four years before Rahul’s remarks, a special CBI court in Mumbai had discharged Shah in a 2005 fake encounter case when he was a minister of state for home affairs in Gujarat.

The Congress leader was not able to appear in the special MP-MLA court on January 18 during the last hearing because of his busy schedule with the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

(With PTI inputs)