A day after resigning as Congress President, Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi will now travel to Maharashtra and Bihar to make personal appearances in connection with a series of defamation cases filed against him.
According to reports, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will be present at Mazgaon court on Thursday at 11 AM for a hearing in the criminal defamation case filed against him and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury.
Dhrutiman Joshi: Summons were also issued in February. Since he was busy with elections then he was given exemption by court. I had also filed complaint against CPM leader Sitaram Yechury for similar statement and he will also be summoned tomorrow. (July 3) https://t.co/nSsHSE5KG6
— ANI (@ANI) July 3, 2019
Rahul Gandhi had blamed RSS for journalist Gouri Lankesh’s murder in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. The defamation case was filed against both Rahul Gandhi and Yechury for defaming the RSS by linking it to the killing of Gauri Lankesh.
A Mumbai-based lawyer Dhrutiman Joshi has filed a defamation petition against Rahul Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury seeking damages of Re.1 for their allegation that RSS was behind Lankesh’s murder. In the criminal defamation case, complainant Dhrutiman Joshi has cited some remarks made by Gandhi and Yechury against the RSS after the killing of radical left-wing ideologue Lankesh.
On July 6, Rahul Gandhi will visit Patna in connection with another defamation case filed against him by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi. A defamation suit was filed by Sushil Modi against Rahul under section 500 of the IPC for his statement attacking PM Modi by saying that all thieves have Modi in their surnames during an election rally in Nanded.
Reportedly, another civil defamation case seeking a token compensation of Re.1 has been filed in Thane against Congress President Rahul Gandhi and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechuri by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist Vivek Champanerkar for linking RSS to the killing of alleged Naxal sympathiser Gauri Lankesh.
Rahul Gandhi will be attending a series of court hearings in various defamation suits filed against him in connection with his frivolous statements made in the past. He will appear before an Ahmedabad court on July 9 for his “murder accused” reference to BJP chief Amit Shah. On July 12, he will appear before another Gujarat court in criminal defamation suits filed by the Ahmedabad District Co-operative bank and its chairman.
Similarly, on July 24, he will travel to Surat to be present at the court in connection with another defamation case for defaming the entire Modi community by saying “Modis are thieves”.
Rahul Gandhi seems to have a habit of resorting to shooting down false accusation and then taking a U-turn following a case of defamation against him. In the past, he had made controversial statements against the RSS after he had accused the nationalist organisation of killing MK Gandhi. He is also facing another defamation case in a court at Bhiwandi in Thane district over his alleged comments against the RSS regarding Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.
During the trial, Rahul Gandhi had made a U-Turn when he had told the Supreme Court that he did not blame the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on the RSS. He further said his remark had been misinterpreted by the RSS worker who filed the initial complaint against him.
