Rahul Gandhi defamation case: Bail granted to Congress leader

The court accepted Rahul's apology and granted him bail on a surety of Rs 75 lakh. Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were also present in the court along with the Congress leader.

Bengaluru: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Friday granted bail in a defamation case filed by the BJP’s Karnataka unit. The special court for cases involving MPs/MLAs granted bail to Rahul Gandhi following his personal appearance.

The court accepted Rahul's apology and granted him bail on a surety of Rs 75 lakh. Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were also present in the court along with Gandhi.

On June 1, 2024, special court judge K N Shivakumar had allowed the application seeking exemption from personal appearance and directed him to appear on June 7, without fail. On June 1, Chief Minister SIddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar, the two other accused in the case, were granted bail on their personal appearance.

The defamation case was filed by Keshav Prasad, MLC and general secretary of the BJP, stating that the newspaper advertisements, issued and circulated by the Congress leaders around the 2023 Assembly elections, were false and that its content defamed the BJP. It was contended that the advertisements depicted the '40 per cent commission' allegation and also carried a 'corruption rate card' that hinted at shady dealings under the erstwhile BJP government.

At the time, Rahul had put up a post of this "defamatory advertisement" on his social media 'X' account, the lawsuit pointed out.

In a post on 'X' after Gandhi personally appeared before the court, the BJP said: “Accused out on bail in the National Herald case, Mr. @RahulGandhi, you are welcome to Namma Bengaluru. We also invite you to experience the consequences of Indian laws for all the misleading and defamatory advertisements you used against our leaders here in Karnataka, which you have failed to prove till today."

(With PTI inputs)