Rahul in Gujarat to appear in courts in two defamation cases

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived here on Friday for appearing in local courts in connection with two criminal defamation suits filed against him in the city.

After his arrival at the Ahmedabad airport, he went straight to city circuit house for a meeting with state Congress leaders.

He is scheduled to reach Metropolitan Court premises in the Ghee Kanta area of the city at around 2:30 pm.

On his way to circuit house, Gandhi was greeted by NSUI and Congress workers at various points. Gandhi briefly alighted from his vehicle near Shahibaug to meet NSUI leaders.

One of the criminal defamation suits was filed against Gandhi for calling Union Home Minister Amit Shah a "murder accused".

The other one is for claiming that Ahmedabad District Cooperative bank, in which Shah is a director, was involved in a scam of swapping scrapped notes of Rs 750 crore with valid currency within five days of demonetisation in 2016.

Since the next date of hearing was fixed on October 11 in both the cases by respective magistrates during last hearings, Gandhi arrived here to attend court proceedings.

In July, the Congress leader appeared before a magistrate's court here in connection with the defamation suit filed by the ADC Bank and pleaded not guilty.

In May, another metropolitan magistrate had issued summons seeking Gandhi's appearance in a defamation suit filed by BJP corporator Krishnavadan Brahmbhatt for calling Shah a "murder accused" at an election rally in Jabalpur.

Gandhi's jibe was slanderous as Shah was acquitted in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case in 2015, the complainant said.

Gandhi will appear before the court in this case for the first time on Friday.

On Thursday, the Wayanad Lok Sabha MP had appeared before a court in Surat in yet another defamation case, and pleaded not guilty.

This case is over his remark "why do all thieves share the Modi surname?" made during a poll rally ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in April.

The complaint in this case is BJP legislator from Surat-West, Purnesh Modi.