Rahul Gandhi ‘taken into custody for 30-45 minutes’ in defamation case, gets bail, says lawyer

The case was filed by a BJP leader for allegedly making objectionable comments against Amit Shah.

Updated on: Feb 20, 2024, 14:17:59 IST

By HT News Desk

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Tuesday granted bail by the Sultanpur court in a 2018 defamation case filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra for the former's remarks against home minister Amit Shah. The court took him into custody for 30-45 minutes, said his lawyer.

Speaking about Rahul's bail advocate Santosh Pandey 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...”.

Pandey further said that Rahul Gandhi could be given a maximum punishment of 2 years if sufficient evidence was found against him. Rahul was granted bail by Judge Yogesh Yadav after filling bail bonds.

The defamation case was filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly making objectionable comments against Shah at a press conference in Bengaluru on May 8 that year. Amit Shah was the BJP president when Gandhi made the remark. Rahul 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.

Reacting to the development Mishra told ANI,"I was the vice president of BJP when this incident happened. Rahul Gandhi had accused Amit Shah in Bengaluru that he is a murderer. When I heard these allegations, I felt very pained because I am a 33-year-old worker of the party. I filed a complaint regarding this through my lawyer and this continued for almost 5 years…"

"The BJP is the biggest party of the country. Calling its (then) president a murderer is unjustifiable," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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