Judges who heard Rahul Gandhi's plea in defamation case previously defended Amit Shah and Kodnani

New Delhi: Justice Hemant M Prachak, who is hearing Rahul Gandhi’s plea seeking annulment of conviction in a defamation case in the High Court, is reportedly among the lawyers who defended former BJP Minister Maya Kodnani in a case related to the Muslim massacre during 2002 Gujarat riots.

Kodnani was one of the accused in the killing of over a hundred Muslims, including women and children, during the 2002 Gujarat riots in the Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam areas of Ahmedabad, received legal aid from Hemant along with others who were acquitted by the Special Court in Gujarat a week ago.

The judge who presided over Rahul Gandhi's appeal in the Modi surname defamation case in a Surat court was Robin Paul Mogera. Interestingly, Mogera had previously served as Union Home Minister Amit Shah's lawyer in the 2006 Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case. Despite Rahul's plea to stay his conviction against a lower court's order sentencing him to two years in jail in the 2019 defamation case, Justice Mogera rejected the request.

Having begun his practice in the High Court of Gujarat, Hemant Prachak went on to serve as Assistant Government Pleader and Additional Public Prosecutor between 2002 and 2007. Subsequently, he acted as the Central Government Standing Counsel for the High Court of Gujarat from 2015 to 2019 before eventually being appointed as a judge in 2021.

On April 27, when Rahul Gandhi's defamation case was scheduled to be heard in Justice Geeta Gopi's court, the judge recused herself from the case. Rahul's lawyer, Pankaj Champaneri, had requested an urgent hearing of the criminal revision application. Despite granting the application, Justice Gopi opted to recuse herself, stating that the case was "not before me".