LUCKNOW: Congress MP from Rae Bareli and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi appeared in the local court of Sultanpur on Friday in connection with a defamation case pertaining to his alleged controversial comments on Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Sultanpur court has posted the matter for the next hearing on August 12.
Gandhi, who appeared before Special Judge Shubham Verma, stated during his appearance that he never made any statement against anyone that could lead to a defamation case, his lawyer Kashi Prasad Shukla told media persons.
The defamation case against Rahul Gandhi was registered by Vijay Mishra, the BJP district chief of Sultanpur, in the district and sessions MP/MLA court on August 4, 2018, accusing Gandhi of making the remarks against Shah during an election rally in Bengaluru in the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly elections.
As per the details of the case, during a press conference in 2018, Rahul Gandhi had said, "People in India forget that the president of BJP is a murder accused. That's the truth. The party that talks of honesty, decency, has a person as president who has been accused of murder." He had added, "Amit Shah has been accused of murder, right? The Supreme Court has mentioned the Judge Loya case. So I don't think Amit Shah has a lot of credibility. I mean, let's look into the background. Let's see what he is responsible for. Let's see how he does politics. Also, don't forget he is a murder accused. This is fundamental," Gandhi had told the media persons.
During the Friday appearance, the petitioner's lawyer Santosh Pandey said that Rahul Gandhi refuted all the charges leveled against him. Gandhi claimed he was being framed for political reasons to tarnish his image. He answered the questions asked by the court and recorded his statement.
"Now we will produce the evidence on August 12, 2024, the next date of hearing," said Pandey.
Meanwhile, UP Congress Committee chief Ajay Rai stated that the ruling party was harassing Rahul Gandhi by filing 30-31 cases against him. "But the Congress party is fighting bravely," he said.
On Friday morning, a large number of Congress workers gathered at the civil court as Rahul Gandhi arrived at exactly 11 am. He appeared before the special judge in court number 15 and returned after recording his statement.
