SC dismisses rape allegation against Rahul Gandhi

The Supreme Court Thursday gave a clean chit to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, saying that the 2006 allegation of gang rape against him and his friends was fake. It also ordered that Gandhi be paid Rs 5 lakh as compensation for damage to his reputation.

The Supreme Court Thursday gave a clean chit to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, saying that the 2006 allegation of gang rape against him and his friends was fake. It also ordered that Gandhi be paid Rs 5 lakh as compensation for damage to his reputation.

An apex court bench of Justice BS Chauhan and Justice Swatanter Kumar held that the allegation was "without substance and not even an iota of evidence" was there to support it.

The court said Kishore Smrite, who had petitioned the Allahabad High Court in 2011, "did not approach the high court with clean hands".

The allegation had "damaged the public image of Rahul Gandhi", the court said.

Smrite had, on the basis of a website report which alleged that on December 3, 2006 Rahul Gandhi and his six friends who were in Amethi, had wrongfully confined a girl and raped her, moved the habeas corpus petition in the high court.