Bengaluru Court Grants Bail to Rahul Gandhi in Defamation Case Filed by BJP
Bengaluru, 7th June 2024: On June 7, a Bengaluru court granted bail to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a case filed by the BJP’s Karnataka unit concerning allegedly defamatory advertisements. These advertisements, circulated before the Assembly polls last year, accused the then-BJP government in Karnataka of engaging in widespread corruption during its tenure from 2019 to 2023.
Earlier, on June 1, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the State Congress chief, were granted bail by the court in the same defamation case after appearing before it. Judge K N Shivakumar had instructed Rahul Gandhi to appear before the court on June 7 without fail.
In this case, Rahul Gandhi is the fourth accused, following the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), Shivakumar, and Siddaramaiah. The defamation suit was filed by BJP MLC and General Secretary Keshav Prasad against the Congress state unit, its president D K Shivakumar, then Opposition leader Siddaramaiah, and Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress party had alleged that the previous government had imposed a 40 percent commission on all public works and had circulated a ‘corruption rate card’ targeting the BJP government in the advertisements. Rahul Gandhi had retweeted the tweets posted by his party during the election campaign.
Notably, Gandhi missed the June 1 hearing, marking his second consecutive absence and drawing the court’s displeasure. The judge then scheduled June 7 for Rahul Gandhi’s mandatory appearance in court.
