Sultanpur (Uttar Pradesh): A special MP-MLA court in Sultanpur on Monday acquitted Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case over remarks he made about Amit Shah in 2018. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubham Verma held that the remarks were not defamatory. Gandhi was present in court when the verdict was pronounced, ending a case that has run for more than eight years.

The verdict

The detailed order was awaited at the time of writing, so the court’s full reasoning has not been reported. What is known is the finding: that Gandhi’s remarks did not amount to defamation, which led to his acquittal. Gandhi travelled to Sultanpur via Lucknow. His legal team included Senior Advocate R.S. Cheema and advocates Kashi Prasad Shukla, Tarannum Cheema, Prasanna S and Akash Singh. Shukla said the Congress side respectfully accepted the decision and that the truth had ultimately prevailed. Congress supporters celebrated outside the court with drums and slogans.

The remark and the complaint

At a press conference in Bengaluru on May 8, 2018, during the Karnataka Assembly election campaign, Gandhi said that while the BJP claimed to believe in honest and clean politics, its party president was an accused in a murder case. Shah was BJP president at the time.

The remark referred to the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. A special CBI court in Mumbai discharged Shah in February 2014, about four years before Gandhi spoke. On August 4, 2018, Vijay Mishra, a local BJP leader and former chairman of the Sultanpur district cooperative bank, filed a complaint under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 500 carries a maximum of two years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both. Mishra said calling the then BJP president a murderer was unjustifiable. Gandhi, for his part, told the court he never made a statement that could amount to defamation, called the case “cheap publicity” and said it was part of a political conspiracy.

Timeline of the case

• 2018: Complaint filed in Sultanpur.
• November–December 2023: The court summons Gandhi, and a warrant is issued when he doesn’t appear.
• February 20, 2024: Gandhi halts his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi and surrenders. He is held in court custody for 30 to 45 minutes and then released on bail on two bonds of ₹25,000 each.
• July 26, 2024: He records his statement, denying the charges.
• 2024–2026: The trial is repeatedly adjourned, mostly because lawyers on both sides cited illness or other commitments. The complainant’s evidence is recorded and cross-examined.
• March–September 2026: Mishra seeks a comparison of Gandhi’s voice sample with a CD he had submitted. The trial court rejects the plea, the sessions court upholds the rejection, and the Allahabad High Court dismisses his petition.
• September 21, 2026: Final arguments begin.
• October 26, 2026: The verdict, first fixed for October 13, is pronounced.

A separate case

This is not the “Modi surname” case. In that case, a Surat court sentenced Gandhi to two years in 2023, which led to his disqualification from Parliament until the Supreme Court stayed the conviction. Several other defamation complaints against him remain pending elsewhere, including over remarks on V.D. Savarkar in Pune and Nashik, remarks about the Army in Lucknow, and a separate complaint over remarks about Shah that reached a Chaibasa court. Today’s verdict doesn’t affect them.

The law in brief

Criminal defamation survived a constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court in 2016, and it now appears in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced the IPC in 2024. The 2018 case still proceeds under the old code because it predates the change. Whether the Sultanpur court relied on a statutory exception, such as truth for public good or good-faith comment, or on a finding that the words didn’t meet the definition will only be clear from the full order.

What happens next

No reaction from the complainant or the BJP was available at the time of writing, and it isn’t known whether the complainant will challenge the acquittal in a higher court. Gandhi, who has appeared in court repeatedly since 2023, now sees this case close at the trial-court level. The wider question of defamation complaints filed against political speech remains live across several courts.

 

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