Rahul Gandhi summoned by Lucknow court for allegedly defamatory remarks about Army

A court in Lucknow has summoned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in connection with his allegedly defamatory remarks about the Army during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022, PTI reported on Tuesday.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma directed the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha to remain present during the next date of hearing on March 24.

Gandhi made the comments on December 16, 2022, about a clash between the Indian and Chinese armies along the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector on December 9, 2022. He made the remarks during the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra, a march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir against the allegedly divisive policies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

A former director of the Border Roads Organisation, Uday Shankar Srivastava, filed a defamation complaint against Gandhi through his lawyer Vivek Tiwari. The lawyer claimed that the Congress leader’s statements were derogatory and defamed the Indian Army.

In a separate case, a court in Gujarat had in March 2023 sentenced Gandhi to two years in prison in a defamation case about comments targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Owing to the conviction, the Congress leader had been disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP.

However, in August that year, the Supreme Court stayed the conviction, leading to Gandhi being reinstated…

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