Patna court grants Rahul Gandhi bail in defamation case

NEW DELHI: A Patna court on Saturday granted bail to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in connection with a defamation suit filed against him by Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.
The Gandhi scion had said that all thieves had the surname Modi—referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bank-fraud accused Nirav Modi and former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi—during an election rally in Karnataka's Kolar district.
The senior BJP leader had filed the case before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's (CJM) court in Patna in April, taking exception to Rahul's remark.
The case was referred by CJM Shashikant Roy to ACJM Kumar Gunjan.
Gandhi, who resigned as the Congress chief on July 3 taking moral responsibility for his party's Lok Sabha election debacle, had last visited the Bihar capital in May, when he held a roadshow for actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who failed to retain the Patna Sahib seat on a Congress ticket in the parliamentary polls held in April-May.
There were reports in a section of the media that Gandhi might also visit Muzaffarpur, about 60 km from here, which has been the worst affected by a state-wide outbreak of brain fever, which has claimed more than 150 lives.
However, Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) working president Kaukab Qadri told PTI that the full itinerary of the former party chief's visit was not made available here yet, "though we see little possibility of Gandhi visiting Muzaffarpur since had it been on the cards, advice would have been given to the state unit for making the necessary arrangements".
On July 4, Rahul had pleaded not guilty in a Mumbai court in an another defamation case for linking activist Gauri Lankesh murder with BJP-RSS ideology. He had been released on Rs 15,000 surety amount. The complaint was filed by an RSS worker and lawyer.
There are five different cases for which Rahul has to appear in courts across the country to defend statements he made against BJP and RSS while campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls. Two of them are done with Rahul appearing in Mumbai and Patna courts.
Next Rahul will appear before an Ahmedabad court on July 9 for his “murder accused” reference to BJP chief Amit Shah, while on July 12, he will appear before another Gujarat court in criminal defamation suits filed by the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank and its chairman. On July 24, Rahul is scheduled to appear before a Surat court, for allegedly defaming the entire Modi community by saying all “Modis are thieves”.