TBN, 20/02/24: In a 2018 defamation lawsuit involving his purported remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by a district court in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday.
“Rahul Gandhi had appeared before the court in response to a summons issued in a defamation case,” Chief Defence Counsel Tarkeshwar Singh of Sultanpur. A bail request was made earlier, and the court eventually approved it. Two sureties, each worth Rs 25,000, were brought before the judge.
Gandhi’s attorney, Kashi Prasad Shukla, stated that his client had also lodged a personal bail for Rs 25,000 in accordance with the court’s order when he was approached.
Meanwhile, representative Santosh Pandey informed reporters, “Rahul Gandhi’s representative asserted that he was innocent and that he hasn’t made any (defamatory) statements. We took issue with that. He was granted bail since his offence is punishable by section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for defamation).
Vijay Mishra of the BJP filed a lawsuit against the Congress leader on August 4, 2018. He brought up Gandhi’s “objectionable” remarks at a news conference in Bengaluru, where he claimed the BJP was involved in a murder case when Shah was the party president at the time.
Four years before Gandhi’s confession, Shah had been cleared by a special CBI court in Mumbai related to a case involving a fictitious encounter in 2005. Shah was Gujarat’s Minister of State for the Home at the time.
