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Rahul Gandhi granted bail in 2018 defamation case
The case was filed by Vijay Mishra on August 4, 2018 against Gandhi for allegedly making objectionable comments against Shah at a press conference in Bengaluru during Karnataka polls
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was granted bail on Tuesday by a special court in Sultanpur related to a defamation case filed by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader on August 4, 2018.
The case was filed by Vijay Mishra against Gandhi for allegedly making objectionable comments against Union minister Amit Shah at a press conference in Bengaluru on May 8 same year during Karnataka assembly elections.
Gandhi had then attacked 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.
Shah was the BJP president when Gandhi had made the remark.
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Speaking about Rahul’s bail, advocate Santosh Pandey, as quoted by news agency ANI, said, “He (Rahul Gandhi) surrendered in the court today. He surrendered and the court took him into custody for 30-45 minutes. After that, his bail application was submitted and was accepted (by the court) ... The further date has not been given yet. His lawyer said that he is innocent, and he has not made any defamatory statement...”.
Gandhi, who was leading the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi on Monday, reached Sultanpur court, about 135 km east of Lucknow, at about 11am and he was granted bail thereafter.
Gandhi signed the bail bond and left the court to resume his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra at Rae Bareli.
(With inputs from PTI)
