A court in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Monday acquitted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case over remarks he made in 2018 referring to Home Minister Amit Shah as a “murder accused”, Bar and Bench reported.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubham Verma delivered the verdict in Sultanpur, ruling that Gandhi’s remarks were not defamatory. Gandhi was present in court.
The case was filed in August 2018 following a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Mishra, who alleged that Gandhi made objectionable comments about Shah during a news conference in Bengaluru on May 8 that year, amid campaigning for Karnataka state elections.
Shah was the BJP’s national president at the time. Gandhi had criticised the party’s claims of promoting clean politics, saying its president was a “murder accused”, in an apparent reference to the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.
A special court in Mumbai discharged Shah in February 2014 in a case linked to the alleged extrajudicial killing of Sheikh.
Gandhi’s convoy was involved in a minor accident on the Purvanchal Expressway while he was travelling to the court, according to reports. Five vehicles behind his car collided with an ambulance. Gandhi was unharmed, while several people were reported injured.
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