Rahul Gandhi appears before Bengaluru court, granted bail in defamation case filed by BJP

#Karnataka: The special court granted bail to @RahulGandhi in connection to the defamation case filed by the @BJP4Karnataka

The BJP had filed a case over the ‘PayCM’ campiagn conducted by @INCKarnataka during the 2023 Karnatala Assembly Polls.

Congress former MP @DKSureshINC… pic.twitter.com/2QIffXHXAm

— South First (@TheSouthfirst) June 7, 2024

Judge KN Shivakumar had directed Gandhi to appear before the court on 7 June, without fail.

During the hearing last week, the counsel for Gandhi moved an application seeking an exemption from appearance for his client, which was opposed by the complainant’s side, arguing that repeated exemptions should not be permitted.

The complaint

The BJP had in its complaint filed in June 2023 alleged that false and reckless allegations were made in the advertisements issued by the accused persons on 5 May, 2023 in all the mainstream newspapers in Karnataka during campaigning for assembly polls, under the title “Corruption rate card” and making accusations of “40 percent Commission Sarkara (government)”.

It was alleged in the complaint that the advertisements were issued by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (state Congress) through Shivakumar, in his capacity as its president and by Siddaramaiah, as the then Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly.

Rahul Gandhi had put up a post of this “defamatory advertisement” on his account on social media platform X, the BJP pointed out.

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