Lawyers' strike in UP pushed Rahul Gandhi's court hearing in defamation case

SULTANPUR: A lawyers' strike in an MP-MLA court here on Wednesday put off a hearing in a 2018 defamation case against Rahul Gandhi in which he was accused of making objectionable remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The case was scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, but due to the lawyers' strike, the court deferred it to March 22, the counsel for the complainant The case was scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, but due to the lawyers' strike, the court deferred it to March 22, the counsel for the complainant, Santosh Pandey said. A complaint was filed in the MP-MLA court by BJP leader Vijay Mishra in August 2018 against Gandhi, alleging he made defamatory remarks against Shah.

Gandhi had appeared in the Special MP-MLA court on February 20 and was granted bail. On the next hearing on March 2, his lawyer Kashi Prasad Shukla had sought more time saying that Gandhi was busy in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

According to the complainant, Gandhi had made the alleged remarks at a press conference in Bengaluru in May 2018 during the Karnataka elections. Shah was BJP president when Gandhi made the remark. Vijay Mishra 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 in the matter.