Spl Chaibasa court summons Gandhi
The special MP-MLA court in Chaibasa has ordered senior Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi to appear physically on March 27 in a defamation case related to a “humiliating” comment made about Union home minister Amit Shah in 2018, lawyers close to the development said on Monday.
“The Chaibasa MP-MLA court of Justice Rishi Kumar on March 14 rejected the petition filed on behalf of Rahul Gandhi on March 12 for exemption from physical appearance and recalling the non-bailable warrant. The court has ordered a physical appearance in Chaibasa special MP-MLA Court on March 27,” Keshav Prasad, senior advocate representing the complainant, told HT on Monday.
The original court order, a certified copy of which is with HT, was issued on Monday.
The court first summoned Rahul Gandhi on February 23, 2022, and later issued a bailable warrant for non-appearance on April 23 that year.
The court issued another non-bailable warrant against Gandhi on February 27, 2024. but he didn’t appear.
Prasad said his client, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pratap Katiyaar, had filed the case in West Singhbhum chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court on July 27, 2018, which was transferred to Ranchi MP-MLA court in 2020 as per the order of the high court (HC).
The Chaibasa MP-MLA court took cognisance of the case under section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on February 4, 2022. The case came back to Chaibasa MP-MLA court on November 12, 2021, after its formation in 2021.
“The defamation case was filed by Pratap Katiyaar against Rahul Gandhi for commenting that ‘a murderer can become party president only in BJP’ in his speech at the Congress plenary session in Delhi in 2018. A similar case was filed against Rahul Gandhi in Ranchi MP-MLA Court by Navin Jha, in which the high court also rejected his plea for exemption from physical appearance. The court has ordered him to physically appear in court on March 27,” said Keshav Prasad.
Senior high court lawyer Dipankar and advocate Sukumar Daripa represented Gandhi in the court on March 14.
In 2022, Gandhi’s lawyers also moved a petition in the Jharkhand high court to quash the case, resulting in a no-coercion order. However, the high court vacated the no coercive action order on May 18, 2023.
Apart from these cases, Gandhi faces another defamation case for his comment “all Modi’s are thieves” in an election rally on April 30, 2019, during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. The HC, however, exempted him from physical appearance in the Ranchi MP-MLA court on August 16, 2023. Pratap Modi filed the case against Gandhi.