Setback to Rahul: Jh'knd HC rejects plea against defamation case

Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's plea to dismiss the defamation case against him filed over alleged derogatory remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Asian News International reported.

On Friday, the court rejected the plea he filed on February 16. Justice Ambuj Nath had reserved the court's decision that day.

The defamation case was filed against Gandhi in 2018 following an election speech he delivered in a Congress session in Chaibasa. BJP leader Naveen Jha filed the case against Gandhi, accusing him of making derogatory comments about Amit Shah, who was the BJP national president then.

In February 20 this year, Gandhi was granted bail in another defamation case filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra in Sultanpur. This case was about another speech by Rahul Gandhi about Shah in a speech he delivered in Bengaluru and was filed in August 2018. The speech was made in May 2018 ahead of polls in Karnataka.

Gandhi had said in his speech that the BJP claims about honest politics, but their party president, Shah, was accused in a murder case. However, Shah was acquitted by a special court in 2014 on a case of a fake encounter in 2005 when he was the Home Minister of Gujarat.