Team News Riveting
Mumbai, November 17
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi has moved the Bombay High Court challenging the order of a Mumbai court summoning him to appear in person in a defamation complaint.
The criminal proceedings against the Congress leader were initiated by Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Girgaon on August 28, 2019 after a defamation complaint was filed by Mahesh Hukumchand Shrishrimal. The complainant is a BJP leader.
Rahul came to know about the complaint only after he received summons from the Court on July 12, 2021. The complainant underlined alleged defamatory statements made by the Congress leader against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a rally in Rajasthan in 2018.
As per the complaint, four days later, Gandhi purportedly commented on a video and posted on his personal twitter account mentioning, “The sad truth about India’s commander in thief.”
Rahul Gandhi stated in his writ petition filed through advocate Kushal Mor that the instant complaint was a classic example of a frivolous and vexatious litigation motivated by the sole purpose of furthering the complainant’s latent political agenda. Gandhi’s plea further added that the plea in the magistrate’s court was filed only to harass him and tarnish his public image.
The plea further stated that it was a clear case of misuse of criminal courts. “The complainant has neither mentioned nor referred to how he was aggrieved by the alleged defamatory statement,” the plea filed by advocate Kushal Mor read.
Stating that he was innocent, Gandhi prayed for quashing of the order of the Magistrate. In the interim, he has sought for a stay on the proceedings.
As counsel for Gandhi, advocate Sudeep Pasbola could not appear for the hearing since he was in another court, Justice S K Shinde adjourned the matter to November 22, 2021.
