The Uttar Pradesh court ruled that Gandhi’s 2018 remarks about the Union Home Minister were not defamatory, bringing relief to the Congress leader in the long-running case.
New Delhi: A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur on Monday acquitted Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case concerning his 2018 remarks about Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubham Verma pronounced the verdict in Gandhi’s presence, ruling that the remarks in question did not constitute defamation.
The case was filed in 2018 by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinay Mishra under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code. The complaint stemmed from a statement Gandhi made during the Karnataka Assembly election campaign in Bengaluru, in which he referred to Shah as an accused in a murder case.
Gandhi had said that the BJP president had been accused of murder, questioning the party’s claims of honesty and propriety. His remarks referred to the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, in which Shah was discharged by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in 2014.
The acquittal marks a significant development in the case, which had remained pending for several years. Senior advocate R S Cheema represented Gandhi, assisted by advocates Kashi Shukla, Tarannum Cheema, Prasanna S and Akash Singh.
Earlier on Monday, Gandhi’s convoy was involved in a multi-vehicle collision on the Purvanchal Expressway near Haliyapur in Sultanpur district while he was travelling to appear before the court. Vehicles travelling behind his car, including an ambulance, reportedly collided after sudden braking. Some Congress workers and security personnel were reported injured and taken to hospital. Gandhi was reported safe and subsequently appeared in court for the verdict.
Gandhi has faced other defamation proceedings in recent years. In 2023, a Gujarat court convicted him and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment over his “all thieves have Modi surname” remark made during an election rally in Karnataka in 2019. The conviction led to his disqualification from Parliament, but the Supreme Court later stayed it, allowing him to continue as a lawmaker.
The Sultanpur verdict relates specifically to the case arising from Gandhi’s remarks about Shah and is separate from the Gujarat case.
