Hearing in 2018 defamation case against Cong leader Rahul Gandhi postponed

Hearing in a 2018 defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his alleged objectionable remark targeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah will now be held on May 14 as no judge was assigned to the MP-MLA court.

According to Gandhi's counsel Kashi Prasad Shukla, the hearing was scheduled for Thursday but could not be held as a judge was yet to be assigned to the court.

The MP-MLA court fixed May 14 as the next date of hearing in the matter, he added.

The defamation complaint against Gandhi was filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra six years ago.

Last December, the court issued a warrant against Gandhi. Subsequently, Gandhi halted his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi on February 20, appeared in the court and was granted bail.

The complaint was filed here on August 4, 2018, against Rahul Gandhi for his alleged objectionable comments against Shah made at a press conference in Bengaluru in May that year during the Karnataka elections.

The complainant referred to Gandhi's comment that the BJP claims to believe in honest and clean politics but has a party president who is an "accused" in a murder case. Shah was BJP president when Gandhi made the comment.

About four years before Gandhi's remark, a special CBI court in Mumbai discharged Shah in a 2005 fake encounter case when he was a minister of state for home in Gujarat.