Verdict In Sultanpur: Court Clears Rahul Gandhi of Defamation Charge Over 2018 Remarks on Amit Shah
The Leader of Opposition was present in the courtroom as the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate pronounced the verdict.
(By Syed Ali Taher Abedi)
Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh: A criminal court in Sultanpur on Monday brought a long-running defamation proceeding to a close, acquitting Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi of charges stemming from remarks he made in 2018 about Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The judgment was pronounced by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubham Verma, with Gandhi present in the courtroom as the verdict was delivered. In its ruling, the Court held that the statements attributed to Gandhi did not amount to defamation.
The Complaint
The prosecution was initiated in 2018 by Vinay Mishra, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. It invoked Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with defamation and its punishment.
The complainant alleged that Gandhi had, while campaigning for the Karnataka Assembly elections, described Shah as an accused in a murder case.
The remarks were made at a public address in Bengaluru. Gandhi had suggested that the people of the country should not lose sight of the fact that the head of a party that preaches honesty and propriety was himself facing a murder accusation.
The Background
The comment was understood to refer to the Sohrab Uddin encounter case. In that matter, a special CBI court discharged Shah in 2014.
A Second Defamation Case
The acquittal comes against the backdrop of another defamation case involving Gandhi. In 2023, a Gujarat court convicted him and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment over his “Modi surname” remark. That remark, made at an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, in 2019, linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fugitives such as Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.
Gandhi, then a Member of Parliament from Wayanad, was disqualified from the Lok Sabha following that conviction. The Supreme Court later stayed the conviction, and this interim relief allowed him to continue as a lawmaker.
