UP: Hearing in 2018 defamation case against Rahul Gandhi postponed to April 12

Sultanpur: Hearing in a 2018 defamation case against Rahul Gandhi over his alleged objectionable remarks targeting Home Minister Amit Shah was postponed to April 12.

The hearing could not take place on Tuesday since the judge was on leave.

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

The plaintiff's advocate, Santosh Pandey, said he gave an application to the court, seeking the issuance of a non-bailable warrant against Gandhi. But since the judge was on leave, the hearing could not take place, he said.

The Congress leader's lawyer Kashi Prasad Shukla said he too gave an application in the court seeking another date for the hearing, citing the schedule of Gandhi, a candidate in Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha seat where the last date of filing nomination is April 4.

Last December, the court issued a warrant against Rahul 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 of 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.