B'luru Court Grants Bail to Rahul Gandhi in 2018 Defamation Case Filed by BJP

Bengaluru: A Special Court in Bengaluru on Friday, June 7, granted bail to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in the 2018 defamation case filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress leader has been granted bail on the security of DK Suresh. The matter for now has been posted to July 30.

The case stemmed from allegations of false advertisements against BJP leaders.

This comes after it was later stated that the matter had been postponed to June 18.

Rahul Gandhi's lawyer Kashi Prasad Shukla as quoted by PTI said due to the death of a lawyer, a condolence meeting was held in the court on Friday and the hearing was postponed.

The defamation case was filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra in 2018 August against Gandhi for his alleged objectionable comments against Union Home Minister Amit Shah made at a press conference in Bengaluru in May of that year during the Karnataka Assembly elections.

The BJP complainant referred to Gandhi's comments that the saffron party claims to believe in honest and clean politics but has a party president who is an "accused" in a murder case. Shah was the BJP president when Gandhi commented.

Following this, in December last year, the court issued a warrant against Rahul Gandhi. Subsequently, the Congress leader halted his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi on February 20, appeared in the court, and was granted bail in February this year.

(With PTI inputs)