On Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by a special court in connection with a defamation case filed by the BJP’s Karnataka unit. The case pertains to allegedly defamatory advertisements published in mainstream newspapers ahead of last year’s Assembly polls, accusing the then BJP government in Karnataka of large-scale corruption from 2019 to 2023.
The special court had previously granted bail to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, also the State Congress chief, in the same case on June 1. Judge K N Shivakumar had ordered Gandhi to appear before the court on June 7 without fail.
Gandhi attended court proceedings related to the defamation case in February and was granted bail at that time as well. The complaint against him was filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra. A warrant was issued against Gandhi last December, prompting him to suspend his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi and appear in court on February 20, where he obtained bail.
The defamation complaint stems from remarks Gandhi made during a press conference in Bengaluru in May 2018, amid the Karnataka elections. His comments criticized the BJP’s claim of upholding honest politics, pointing out that the party president was accused in a murder case.
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