Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Tuesday granted bail by a district court in Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh in a case pertaining to his alleged objectionable remarks on Union Home Minister Amit Shah made about four years back.
The special MP/MLA court magistrate Yogesh Kumar Yadav granted bail to Rahul, who surrendered before the court, after filling two bail bonds of Rs 25 thousand each, his lawyer K.P.Shukla said.
DH sources said that Rahul was in the court custody after surrender for some time before being released on bail.
Slogans of "Rahul Gandhi Zindabad" and "Bharat Jodo" were raised as Gandhi, who could not attend the last hearing on January 18 as he was busy with his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, arrived for the hearing. The next hearing will be held on March 2.
PTI, meanwhile, reported that he was supposed to arrive by a helicopter from Fursatganj in the neighbouring Amethi district and tight security arrangements were made at the Amhat airport accordingly. But there was a change in plan and he reached via road, covering a distance of about 75 km, with Congress workers welcoming him along the route.
BJP leader Vijay Mishra had filed an application before the court on August 4, 2018, contending that Rahul had made objectionable comments against Amit Shah at Bengaluru in May that year during the Karnataka elections.
The complainant referred to Gandhi's comment that the BJP claims to believe in honest and clean politics but has a party president who is an "accused" in a murder case. Shah was BJP president when Gandhi made the remark.
The court had summoned Rahul in the case. Rahul's lawyer had on Monday moved an application requesting the court to hear the matter on Tuesday.
About four years before Gandhi's remark, a special CBI court in Mumbai discharged Shah in a 2005 fake encounter case when he was a minister of state for home in Gujarat.
"The BJP is the biggest party of the country. Calling its (then) president a murderer is unjustifiable," Mishra told reporters on Tuesday. He said Gandhi had skipped several summonses.
During the hearing on January 18, for the first time his advocate Kashi Prasad Shukla appeared in the court on behalf of Rahul Gandhi.
Vijay Mishra is a BJP leader and hails from Hanumanganj of Kotwali Dehat police station in Sultanpur.
Advocate Santosh Pandey had filed a complaint on behalf of Mishra and the court issued a warrant on December 16, 2023.
(With PTI inputs)