The hearing in the defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his alleged objectionable remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been rescheduled to June 26. This decision came about as the judge overseeing the case was on leave.
The defamation complaint against Gandhi was lodged by BJP leader Vijay Mishra. Santosh Kumar Pandey, the plaintiff’s lawyer, confirmed that the matter was scheduled for hearing on Tuesday but had to be postponed due to the absence of the concerned court judge. Previously, Judge Shubham Verma had fixed June 18 as the date for the hearing.
Rahul Gandhi had previously appeared in court on February 20 in connection with this defamation case and was granted bail. The complaint was filed on August 4, 2018, following Gandhi’s alleged objectionable comments against Shah during a press conference in Bengaluru.
In his remarks, Gandhi had referred to Shah as being associated with a party that claims to uphold honest and clean politics but is led by a president who was once an “accused” in a murder case. At the time of Gandhi’s comment, Shah was serving as the BJP president.
It’s noted that four years before Gandhi’s statement, a special CBI court in Mumbai had acquitted Shah in a 2005 fake encounter case from his tenure as the minister of state for home in Gujarat.
