Hearing For 2018 Defamation Case Against Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi Postponed For April 12

The hearing in Rahul Gandhi’s 2018 defamation case regarding his offensive remarks towards Home Minister Amit Shah has been rescheduled for April 12. The judge was on leave on Tuesday, so the hearing could not happen.

Six years ago, BJP leader Vijay Mishra filed a defamation case against Gandhi.

Santosh Pandey, the plaintiff’s attorney, stated he applied to the court to have a non-bailable warrant against Gandhi.

However, he said, the hearing could not happen since the judge was on leave.

Kashi Prasad Shukla, the lawyer for the Congress leader, claimed that he also filed a request with the court for a new hearing date, citing Gandhi’s schedule as a reference. Gandhi is a candidate for Kerala’s Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, where the deadline for filing nominations is April 4.

The court issued an arrest warrant for Rahul Gandhi in December of last year. On February 20, Gandhi then called into court and was given bail after calling off his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi.

On August 4, 2018, a complaint was lodged against Rahul Gandhi for allegedly making offensive remarks about Shah during a news conference in Bengaluru in May of the same year, during the Karnataka elections.

The complaint made reference to Gandhi’s remark that, despite the BJP’s professed commitment to honorable and transparent politics, its president is a “accused” in murder case. Gandhi made the remark while Shah was the president of BJP.

Four years prior to Gandhi’s statement, Shah was cleared in a 2005 fake encounter case by a special CBI court in Mumbai while serving as Gujarat’s minister of state for home affairs.

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