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Congress leader and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to appear before the MP-MLA court in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday (July 26) for a defamation case hearing.
The case pertains to Gandhi allegedly making objectionable comments against the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and current Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2018.
Abhishek Singh Rana, the Congress district president, said that Gandhi will arrive at the Lucknow airport at 9 am on Friday before heading to Sultanpur.
Earlier this month, Special Magistrate Shubham Verma had summoned Gandhi to record his statement on July 26.
Previously, the court had granted bail to Gandhi on February 20 this year in connection with this case, after the Amethi MP had halted his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ to appear in the court.
What is the defamation case against Rahul Gandhi?
Vijay Mishra, a BJP leader, filed the defamation complaint on August 4, 2018, based on comments Gandhi made during a press conference in Bengaluru. Gandhi had criticised the BJP for claiming to promote honest politics while having a party president who was ‘accused’ in a murder case.
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During the time of Gandhi’s remarks, Amit Shah was serving as the BJP president. In 2014, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai cleared Shah of charges in a 2005 fake encounter case from when he was the minister of state for home in Gujarat.
What are the other defamation allegations against Gandhi?
Keshav Prasad, a BJP MLC and general secretary, also filed a defamation case involving several Congress leaders, including state unit president D K Shivakumar, former Opposition leader Siddaramaiah, and Rahul Gandhi.
The Karnataka BJP unit accused Congress of running a smear campaign, dubbed ‘PayCM,’ ahead of the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections. This campaign featured a ‘rate card’ alleging bribes for government positions. Gandhi’s retweets of these messages during the election campaign have been cited as evidence in the case.
The complaint alleges that the Congress engaged in propaganda by publishing full-page ads claiming the previous BJP government in Karnataka charged a 40 per cent commission on government projects. The BJP asserts that Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar made these false allegations to mislead the public and is seeking action under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with defamation.
In a prior hearing, the court granted bail to Rahul Gandhi. The next hearing is set for July 30.
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