Sultanpur (UP), A court hearing scheduled on Saturday in the 2018 defamation case against Rahul Gandhi over his alleged objectionable remarks targeting Home Minister Amit Shah was postponed to March 13 after the Congress leader’s counsel sought more time saying he was busy with the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Gandhi had appeared in the special MP-MLA court on February 20 and was granted bail. The court had then fixed March 2 for the next hearing.
But on Saturday his lawyer Kashi Prasad Shukla sought more time from the court.
“I have got information that Rahul Gandhi is busy in Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Hence, I submitted an application in the court, on which the court has fixed the next hearing for March 13,” Shukla said. Asked if Gandhi will appear in the court on March 13, the advocate said, “I cannot tell right now whether Rahul Gandhi will appear in the court on the next hearing or not, but I will definitely say that Rahul Gandhi respects the court. If the circumstances are right then undoubtedly he will come and record his statement.”
Santosh Pandey, the advocate of complainant BJP leader Vijay Mishra, said Gandhi’s advocate was asking for one month’s time. “But I opposed”.
The complaint was filed here against Rahul Gandhi for his alleged indecent remarks against Amit Shah during the Karnataka elections six years ago. Mishra had filed the case on August 4, 2018 over Gandhi’s alleged objectionable comments against Shah made at a press conference in Bengaluru in May that year during the Karnataka elections. The complainant referred to Gandhi’s comment that the BJP claims to believe in honest and clean politics but has a party president who is an “accused” in a murder case. Shah was BJP president when Gandhi made the remark.
About four years before Gandhi’s remark, a special CBI court in Mumbai discharged Shah in a 2005 fake encounter case when he was a minister of state for home in Gujarat.
“The BJP is the biggest party of the country. Calling its (then) president a murderer is unjustifiable,” Mishra told reporters on Tuesday. He said Gandhi had skipped several summonses.
A hearing was conducted on January 18, when Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer appeared in the case for the first time.
Vijay Mishra is a BJP leader and hails from Hanumanganj of Kotwali Dehat police station in Sultanpur.
Advocate Santosh Pandey had filed a complaint on behalf of Mishra and the court issued a warrant on December 16, 2023.