LoP in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi
Credit: PTI Photo
Sultanpur (UP): The hearing in a defamation case against Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in a MP-MLA court in this Uttar Pradesh district was postponed on Saturday due to a health camp organised by the bar council.
The matter will now be heard on October 1.
Plaintiff Vijay Mishra's lawyer Santosh Kumar Pandey said his client's statement was to be recorded on Saturday, but due to the health camp organised by the Bar Association on the civil court premises, the lawyers were busy in it and no court work could be done. "The court has postponed the matter to October 1," he said.
Gandhi has been accused of making objectionable comments during the 2018 Karnataka polls about Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was the BJP president then.
Mishra, a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician, filed a complaint against Gandhi in August 2018. Since then, the matter has been going on in the court.
Gandhi surrendered before the court during the "Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra" on February 20 and was granted bail on personal surety bonds of Rs 25,000 each.
Subsequently, the court issued several notices to the Congress leader to record his statement, but he was unable to appear before it due to the Lok Sabha polls.
Gandhi finally appeared before the MP-MLA court on July 26, got his statement recorded and said the case was filed to gain "cheap publicity".
The former Congress chief, who appeared before Special Judge Shubham Verma, said he never gave a statement against anyone that could lead to a case of defamation, his lawyer Kashi Prasad Shukla had told reporters.
The matter was posted for further proceedings on August 12 but was deferred as the judge was on leave.
On the next two dates on August 23 and September 5, the hearing did not take place as the plaintiff could not appear in the court due to ill health.