New Delhi. Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will appear in Sultanpur MP-MLA court today at 10:30 am in a defamation case. The case is related to his controversial remarks about Amit Shah during the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections. Shah was the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at that time. BJP leader Vijay Mishra had filed a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his comments.
UP: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has arrived in Lucknow and will proceed to Sultanpur. He is set to appear in the Sultanpur court for a defamation case related to objectionable comments made about Union Home Minister Amit Shah. pic.twitter.com/GDMdZ3gqn3
— IANS (@ians_india) July 26, 2024
Rahul Gandhi is on bail in this case since February 20. He was first ordered to appear in court on July 2, but could not appear due to the ongoing Lok Sabha session. He appeared in the MP-MLA court of Sultanpur on February 20 and got bail on two sureties of Rs 25,000 each.
The controversy began when BJP leader Vijay Mishra filed a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi on August 4, 2018. Mishra alleged that Rahul had made a controversial remark about then BJP president and current Home Minister Amit Shah during a meeting in Bengaluru on May 8, 2018, during the Karnataka assembly elections. Rahul Gandhi had allegedly said, “Even a murder accused can become the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, but this cannot happen in the Congress.” This remark led to the current legal proceedings.