Sultanpur, October 26, 2026: An eight-year-old legal dispute involving Congress leader Rahul Gandhi came to a close on Monday after a special MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur acquitted him in a criminal defamation case connected to his remarks about Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Gandhi, who currently serves as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, was present in the courtroom when Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubham Verma delivered the judgment. The court found that the remarks forming the basis of the complaint did not constitute defamation.
The case originated during the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election campaign, when Gandhi made comments about Shah, who was then the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His remarks referred to Shah’s association with a murder case while questioning the BJP’s claims of maintaining high standards of political integrity.
The statement prompted Sultanpur-based BJP leader Vijay Mishra to approach the court on August 4, 2018. Mishra alleged that Gandhi’s comments were damaging to Shah’s reputation and filed a criminal defamation complaint under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code.
The remarks concerned the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, in which Shah had been discharged by a special CBI court in 2014.
The legal proceedings continued for several years, during which Gandhi contested the allegations. He was granted bail in February 2024, while the court continued hearing arguments related to the complaint.
The court had initially scheduled the announcement of its judgment for October 13, 2026, before postponing it to October 26.
Following Monday’s decision, Congress supporters gathered outside the court welcomed the acquittal, bringing a significant development in the long-running legal dispute involving the senior opposition leader.
