A court in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on October 26 acquitted Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case arising from his remarks about Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election campaign.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubham Verma, while delivering the verdict, held that Gandhi’s statements were not defamatory. Gandhi was personally present in the courtroom when the judgment was pronounced.
The case concerned Gandhi’s reference to Shah as a murder accused, despite Shah having been discharged in the Sohrabuddin encounter case by a special CBI court in 2014.
Defamation Complaint Filed in 2018
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinay Mishra had initiated criminal proceedings against Gandhi in 2018 under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The complaint arose from a statement Gandhi made in Bengaluru during the Karnataka election campaign. He had questioned the BJP’s claims of honesty and decency while referring to its then-president Amit Shah as someone who had been accused of murder.
Mishra subsequently approached the court, alleging that Gandhi’s remarks amounted to criminal defamation.
The Sultanpur court, however, concluded that the statements did not constitute defamation and acquitted Gandhi of the charges.
Earlier Conviction in Modi Surname Case
Gandhi had previously faced conviction in a separate criminal defamation case concerning his remarks about the Modi surname.
In 2023, a Gujarat court sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment over a statement made at an election rally in Karnataka’s Kolar constituency in 2019, where he had linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fugitives Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi while questioning why thieves shared the Modi surname.
The conviction resulted in Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament, where he was then representing the Wayanad constituency.
The Supreme Court subsequently stayed his conviction, allowing him to continue as a Member of Parliament.
