The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday directed that no coercive action should be taken against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case related to comments that he had made at a campaign rally during the 2019 general election.
The order was pronounced on Tuesday by Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi, who said that the former Wayanad MP would not face any immediate coercive action such as arrest or detention related to the defamation case.
The court directed that the next hearing in the matter would take place on August 16.
In 2019, in a speech, Gandhi had compared the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, and asked the crowds gathered in Kolar in the state of Karnataka, “Why do all these thieves have Modi as a surname?”
Following Gandhi’s implication that “PM Modi is a thief”, advocate Pradip Modi , who practices in Ranchi civil court, filed a Rs 20 crore defamation case against him in 2019.
Rahul Gandhi’s counsel had filed a criminal writ petition in the Jharkhand High Court to exempt him from personal appearance in the defamation case in an MP-MLA court in Ranchi. The same petition was already rejected by the MP-MLA court, reported India Today.
A total of three defamation cases are pending against Rahul Gandhi in Jharkhand- one at Chaibasa and two cases in Ranchi.
Earlier, on March 23, a Surat court in Gujarat convicted and sentenced Rahul Gandhi to two-year imprisonment on charges of criminal defamation for comments he made on PM Modi’s surname. Gandhi was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha the next day, as per a Supreme Court ruling in 2013. His appeal against the Surat court order is pending with the Gujarat High Court.
Rahul Gandhi’s counsel had filed a criminal writ petition in the Jharkhand High Court to exempt him from personal appearance in the defamation case in an MP-MLA court in Ranchi. The same petition was already rejected by the MP-MLA court.