The Jharkhand High Court on March 20 stayed the 2018 defamation case filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for one month.
On February 27, the MP-MLA Court of Chaibasa district had issued a non-bailable warrant against Mr. Gandhi and subsequently on March 14, the court had mandated the Congress leader for physical appearance, refusing his petition to make his appearance through a pleader.
Mr. Gandhi had filed a petition in the High Court against the warrant. During the hearing, Justice Rajesh Kumar postponed the warrant for one month with a condition and directed him to take legal steps before facing the trial.
Pratap Katiyar, a resident of Chaibasa, had filed a complaint against Mr. Gandhi and alleged that he had made derogatory remarks against former BJP chief Amit Shah in the Congress convention in 2018.
The Congress leader had said that no murderer can become the national president in Congress and Congressmen cannot accept a murderer as the national president, and such a thing is only possible in BJP.
Based on this complaint, the Chaibasa court had issued a bailable warrant against Mr. Gandhi in April 2022. Following this, Mr. Gandhi filed a petition in the High Court to quash this case, however, the court had rejected his petition.
