Rahul Gandhi Granted Bail By Bengaluru Court In Defamation Case
On Friday, a special court granted bail to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in relation to a defamation case filed against him for issuing “defamatory” advertisements in mainstream newspapers. The 2018 defamation case was filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) local unit in Karnataka.
Lodged by Karnataka BJP MLC and General Secretary Keshav Prasad in June 2023, the defamation suit involves Congress’ campaign called ‘PayCM’ ahead of the state assembly elections that year, wherein the grand old party published full-page advertisements accusing the previous Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government in Karnataka of corruption charges during its 2019-2023 tenure. The advertisements included ‘rate cards’ of bribes and accused the state government of charging 40 percent commission for providing government jobs.
Rahul Gandhi had retweeted the posts made by Congress ahead of the polls.
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The lawsuit accused the Congress of running a smear campaign against the erstwhile government and making ‘false’ and ‘irresponsible’ claims by publishing the ads in an attempt to misguide the people. Co-accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and deputy Shivakumar were granted bail by a special court following their court appearance on June 1. Gandhi, however, had failed to show up on the date of the hearing for the second time, leading to judge KN Shivakumar fixing June 7 as the next date for the personal appearance of Gandhi without fail.
State Deputy CM Shivakumar has described the defamation lawsuit as “false” and “bogus.”
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Meanwhile, the hearing for another defamation case filed against Gandhi for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Union Minister Amit Shah has been postponed to June 18 by an MP-MLA court today. The Congress leader’s lawyer, Kashi Prasad Shukla, stated that the postponement was demanded following the death of a lawyer and a condolence meeting on Friday.
Filed by BJP leader Vijay Sharma in 2018, the complaint alleged that Gandhi had claimed that the BJP’s commitment to honest politics was juxtaposed with the fact that its president was an “accused” in a murder case. The Congress leader had allegedly made these remarks against Shah in a press conference during the Karnataka elections.
In 2014, Shah was acquitted of triple murder charges in the 2005 fake encounter case, where he was the prime accused. A special CBI court in Mumbai discharged Shah of the charges.
