Bengaluru Court Grants Bail To Rahul Gandhi In Defamation Case Filed By Karnataka BJP

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been granted bail by a Special Court in Bengaluru in the defamation case filed earlier by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit.

BJP's Karnataka unit accused Congress of "defamatory" advertisements in mainstream newspapers ahead of Assembly polls last year.

The then BJP government in the state was accused of indulging in large-scale corruption during its 2019-2023 rule by Congress through the advertisements.

The court had on June one granted bail to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the State Congress chief, after they appeared before it in connection with the defamation case.

Judge K N Shivakumar had directed Gandhi to appear before the court on June seven without fail.

Rahul Gandhi is implicated in another defamation case filed by BJP in 2018 where he is accused of making objectionable remarks targeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The complaint was filed on August 4, 2018, against Gandhi who during a press conference in Bengaluru in May of that year during the Karnataka elections said 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 the BJP president when Gandhi commented.

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.