Rahul gets bail in defamation case

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by a special court in Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur on Tuesday in a defamation case over his reference to Union Home Minister Amit Shah as a murder accused in 2018.

Rahul Gandhi was granted bail on a surety of Rs 25,000 and a personal bond of the same amount. He pleaded innocence in court, saying he had not made any defamatory statement.

The case stemmed from a press conference held by Gandhi in Bengaluru during the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections, where he allegedly made "objectionable comments" about Shah. BJP leader Vijay Mishra filed the defamation complaint on August 4, 2018, accusing Gandhi of tarnishing Shah's image.

Mishra specifically cited Gandhi's statement that the BJP, despite claiming to follow clean politics, had a party president who was an "accused" in a murder case. At the time of Gandhi's remarks, Shah was the BJP president.

It’s important to note that a special CBI court in Mumbai had discharged Shah in 2014 from a 2005 fake encounter case, in which he was accused while serving as the Gujarat Home Minister.