Gujarat court allows Rahul Gandhi to skip hearing in defamation case

 A court hearing a criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi over his statement against Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday allowed the Congress leader to remain absent for the day.

The magistrate's court in Ahmedabad had in July issued summons to Gandhi, asking him to remain present on Friday to defend himself. Local BJP corporator Krishnavadan Brahmbhatt has filed a criminal defamation suit against Gandhi.

On Friday, his lawyers submitted an exemption application, saying Gandhi could not come as he was to attend some crucial party meetings, including that of the Congress Working Committee, in Delhi on Friday and Saturday.

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Brahmbhatt's lawyers opposed the plea. But Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R B Italiya granted the request, saying that it was only the first hearing.

The judge ordered Gandhi to remain present on October 11. Krishnavada Brahmbhatt had alleged that at an election rally in Jabalpur on April 23, Gandhi  had made some objectionable comments wherby he had said, "murder-accused BJP chief Amit Shah, wah, kya shaan hai (how glorious)!".

Brahmbhatt had contended that Rahul Gandhi's remark were defamatory and slanderous as Amit Shah was acquitted by a CBI court in 2015 in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

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After Rahul Gandhi's remark at the rally, Amit Shah had hit back at the Congress leader pointing out that he had been acquitted in the case, and questioned his "legal knowledge". 

In 2015, a special had court discharged the Union Hime Minister in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounter cases, holding no case existed against him and that he had been implicated for political reasons.

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