Sultanpur court acquits Rahul Gandhi in defamation case over remarks on Amit Shah

The MP-MLA court in Sultanpur has acquitted Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, in a defamation case. The case related to a statement he made against Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The court declared Gandhi innocent during the hearing.

The case had been pending in court for about eight years, and the verdict was delivered today. Congress leaders are elated after the verdict, and the party has welcomed it.

The case began in May 2018, when campaigning for the Karnataka Assembly election was under way. Gandhi had held a press conference in Bengaluru at the time. At that press conference he made the statement about Amit Shah, then national president of the BJP and now Union Home Minister. BJP leader Vijay Mishra, a former chairman of the Sultanpur District Cooperative Bank, filed a petition against Gandhi on August 4, 2018. He alleged that the statement was defamatory.

Before the verdict, complainant Vijay Mishra said: "We hope we will get justice, especially considering how he treated our then BJP national president (Amit Shah). This legal case has been going on since 2018 and has dragged on to 2026. The verdict is expected today, and seeing the way our lawyers have fought the case, we are confident that the verdict will be in our favour."

On the course of the case so far, the court summoned Gandhi as an accused on November 27, 2023, after a hearing. Gandhi then appeared in the Sultanpur court in person on February 20, 2024. He was granted bail on two sureties of Rs 25,000 each. While in court, Gandhi rejected the allegations and said it was a conspiracy by the ruling party.

During the trial, the complainant's side produced three witnesses. Statements were recorded from Vijay Mishra, Anil Mishra and Ramchandra Dubey.

Another demand was also raised in court. The complainant's side had filed a petition seeking a sample of Gandhi's voice. The sessions court rejected it. The sessions court and then the Allahabad High Court also turned down the petition on this demand.

Separately, the special MP-MLA court last year dismissed, for lack of solid evidence, another petition seeking to prosecute Gandhi for alleged statements against Muslims. The petition was filed by advocate Mohammad Anwar. It related to Gandhi's statement in which he had linked Muslims to Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI during the Muzaffarnagar riots 13 years ago.

Before Special Magistrate Shubham Verma, charges against MPs and MLAs in several cases could not be proved. Several leaders and their supporters have been acquitted in the related cases, among them former minister Om Prakash Singh, sitting MLAs Vinod Singh and Sitaram Verma, and former MLAs Safdar Raza, Anoop Sanda, Santosh Pandey and Chandrabhadra Singh Sonu. In these cases the prosecution failed to prove the charges.