Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was acquitted by a special MP/MLA court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur on Monday in a 2018 criminal defamation case over his alleged objectionable remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president at the time.
Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rae Bareli MP, appeared before the court in person for the pronouncement of the verdict.
The case stemmed from remarks Gandhi allegedly made during the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election campaign in Bengaluru. He had reportedly referred to Shah as a murder accused while criticising the BJP’s claims of promoting clean politics.
The defamation complaint was filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra, a former chairman of the District Cooperative Bank in Sultanpur, on August 4, 2018.
According to reports, the court held that Gandhi’s remarks were not defamatory in nature. The case was filed under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with criminal defamation and its punishment.
Gandhi was summoned to face trial in November 2023 and secured bail in February 2024. During the proceedings, the complainant sought to have Gandhi’s voice sample compared with a recording of the Bengaluru speech. The trial court rejected the application, a decision subsequently upheld by the sessions court and the Allahabad High Court.
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