Rahul Gandhi Acquitted in Defamation Case Over Remarks Against Amit Shah

A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur on Monday acquitted Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case related to his 2018 remarks referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah as an accused in a murder case.

Rahul Gandhi was present in court when Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubham Verma pronounced the verdict. The court observed that Gandhi’s remarks did not amount to defamation.

The case was filed in 2018 by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinay Mishra under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to the complainant, Gandhi had referred to Shah as a murder accused during a speech delivered in Bengaluru amid the Karnataka elections.

During the speech, Gandhi had said that people often forgot that the BJP president was a murder accused, criticising the party for speaking about honesty and decency while having a leader facing such allegations.

His remarks referred to the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, in which Shah was discharged by a special CBI court in 2014.

In 2023, Gandhi was convicted by a court in Gujarat in a separate defamation case over his 2019 remark, “All thieves have Modi surname.” The statement was made at an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, and referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alongside fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

Following his conviction and sentence of two years’ imprisonment, Gandhi, who then represented Wayanad in the Lok Sabha, was disqualified from Parliament.

However, the Supreme Court subsequently stayed his conviction, allowing him to continue as a Member of Parliament.

Senior Advocate R.S. Cheema, along with advocates Kashi Shukla, Tarannum Cheema, Prasanna S. and Akash Singh, represented Rahul Gandhi in the case.

The latest verdict marks a legal victory for Gandhi in the defamation proceedings related to his remarks against Amit Shah.