A magistrate court in Thane’s Bhiwandi city in Maharashtra on Wednesday deferred the hearing in the defamation case against Congress President Rahul Gandhi to April 23, PTI reported. The case was filed by a worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on the Congress leader’s alleged statement from 2014 about Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.
The hearing was deferred as Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer sought time for the party president to appear before the court owing to his political commitments.
The complainant’s lawyer said these were tactics by the defendant to delay the hearing in the case. The complainant also filed a pursis – any statement in writing provided to a court to be included as evidence – alleging Rahul Gandhi was being given preferential treatment.
Addressing a rally in Maharasthra ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Gandhi had accused the RSS of killing Mahatma Gandhi. Soon after, an RSS activist filed a defamation case against him in Bhiwandi.
A year later, Gandhi turned down the Supreme Court’s offer to express regret in order to get the defamation suit against him quashed. He stood by his remarks when he appeared before the court in Bhiwandi in November 2016. “I can now continue my fight,” he told Congress workers after he was granted bail.
The Supreme Court had earlier reproached the Congress leader, saying: “You can’t make collective denunciations.”
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