Rahul Gandhi need not appear in court in defamation case

MUMBAI: In a relief to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Bombay high court on Tuesday exempted him from personal appearance before a magistrate in Bhiwandi in a defamation case filed against him.
The exemption was granted till February 17, when the high court will again hear Gandhi’s plea to quash the defamation case filed against him by RSS activist Rajesh Kunte.
Kunte’s contention is that Gandhi, in a pre-poll speech at a rally in Bhiwandi in March, “obliquely hinted” that an RSS worker killed Mahatma Gandhi.
Three weeks after Rahul Gandhi’s speech, Kunte sought his criminal prosecution under Section 500 of the IPC for the “false and baseless allegation”.
A magistrate, S V Swami, in July summoned Gandhi to his court on October 7. The magistrate exempted him from appearance in October but ordered him to be present on January 7, Wednesday, to face prosecution. Gandhi moved the high court last month to have the “motivated and mala fide” criminal complaint and proceedings against him quashed.
He said there was no case of defamation made out and added that “the institution of the complaint was a part of the BJP election campaign which all activists of RSS were wholeheartedly supporting”.
Senior counsel R S Cheema, P K Dhakephalkar and Cherag Balsara appeared for him before Justice M L Tahaliyani on Tuesday. Senior counsels V K Kogaje and Ram Apte appearing for Kunte said a quashing plea at this stage was not maintainable.
Justice Tahaliyani, who granted the relief to Gandhi, observed: “Just because someone is hurt, it may not amount to defamation.”