Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who appeared in two separate defamation cases filed against him in local courts in Ahmedabad on Friday, was granted bail in one of the cases. He had already been given bail in the other matter.
The case where he was granted bail related to a remark made by him during the Lok Sabha campaign in Jabalpur, when he had referred to BJP leader Amit Shah as a “murder accused”. Mr. Gandhi pleaded “not guilty” and was given bail on a bond of ₹10,000 by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R.B. Etaliya after Gujarat’s leader of the opposition Paresh Dhanani stood surety in the matter.
Before the court proceedings, Mr. Gandhi shared on Twitter a video that showed him meeting with the “Congress family” at a restaurant in Ahmedabad.
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The video showed him meeting State Congress leaders including youth leader Hardik Patel, who joined the party ahead of the general elections.
“It was good to connect with members of my Congress family here in the city and to have a meal with them at a local restaurant. I thank them all,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted.
“Yesterday it was Surat, today it’s Ahmedabad - to attend a hearing in yet another politically motivated case filed against me,” he added on Twitter.
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Mr. Gandhi’s lawyer moved an application for personal exemption in the defamation case over his remark referring to Mr. Shah, and the court, which set December 7 as the date for the next hearing, said it would consider the application at that time.
The case was filed by BJP municipal councillor Krishnavadan Brahmbhatt, who had called the Congress leader’s remark ‘slanderous’ since Mr. Shah had been discharged in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in 2015.
Mr. Gandhi also made an appearance in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Nirali Munshi in connection with a defamation case filed by Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank chairman Ajay Patel.
That case was filed following Mr. Gandhi’s allegation and tweets accusing the ADC bank of facilitating large-scale exchange of withdrawn currency notes in the wake of the 2016 demonetisation decision. The court had granted Mr. Gandhi bail in this case in July, when he had appeared before it.