Sultanpur, March 20: Hearing could not be held in the defamation case of Leader of Opposition and Rae Bareli MP Rahul Gandhi in the MP-MLA special court on Thursday due to the proposal of lawyers’ strike. Complainant’s lawyer Santosh Pandey said that now the case will be heard on April 3.
Hanumanganj resident of Kotwali Dehat area and BJP leader Vijay Mishra had filed a defamation complaint against Rahul Gandhi in the MP-MLA court in the year 2018.
He had alleged that Rahul Gandhi had made indecent remarks during the Karnataka elections in 2018, I am hurt by this. A five-year long process went on in the court, when Rahul Gandhi did not appear, the court issued a warrant in December 2023 and summoned him. Then in February 2024, Rahul Gandhi surrendered in the court.
The special magistrate’s court had granted him bail on two sureties of Rs 25 each. After this, Rahul Gandhi was called by the court to record his statement. After a dozen dates, Rahul reached the court on 26th July and recorded his statement.
He declared himself innocent and said that a political conspiracy is being hatched against me. After this, the plaintiff was directed to present evidence in the court. When the cross-examination was not completed on 2nd January this year, the court fixed the dates of 10th January and 22nd January, but the hearing was again postponed on both these dates due to the strike of lawyers. When the date was fixed for 30th January, the cross-examination could not be done due to the ill health of Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer Kashi Shukla. Similarly, the hearing is being continuously postponed due to some reason or the other.
