INDIAN COURT ACQUITS RAHUL GANDHI IN DEFAMATION CASE

A court in Sultanpur acquitted Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, in a defamation case on 26 October, television channels said. Gandhi attended the hearing in the northern Indian town as the court delivered its verdict. The case concerned an accusation that he had called Home Minister Amit Shah a “murder accused” during a state election campaign speech in 2018. A member of Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party filed the case in Sultanpur, in Uttar Pradesh.

Shah headed the Bharatiya Janata Party at the time of the speech. Gandhi’s supporters set off firecrackers, beat drums and waved party flags as he left the court, television images showed. Gandhi belongs to the Nehru-Gandhi political family, which has played a prominent part in Congress. Congress governed India for much of the period after the country gained independence from Britain.

The verdict comes as Gandhi leads an opposition campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India’s Chief Election Commissioner over a revision of voter lists. A court in Gujarat, Modi’s home state, convicted Gandhi in a separate defamation case in 2023. That case concerned a remark about the “Modi surname”. The conviction briefly cost Gandhi his seat in Parliament.