Afternoon Pulse: Sultanpur court acquits Rahul Gandhi in 2018 defamation case

A special MP/MLA court in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, acquitted Rahul Gandhi on Monday in the criminal defamation case concerning his remarks about Amit Shah during the 2018 Karnataka election campaign. The Hindu and Hindustan Times independently report the verdict. Gandhi appeared in person before the court. This is the main national development since the morning Pulse, which led with the BJP–Congress dispute over Mallikarjun Kharge’s Patna speech.

Hindustan Times identifies the judge as Shubham Verma and reports that defence counsel Kashi Prasad Shukla confirmed the acquittal. The Hindu also reports the acquittal and quotes Uttar Pradesh Congress media department chairman Kunwar Singh Nishad on the decision. These accounts establish the reported outcome; the detailed written judgment is needed for a precise explanation of the court’s legal reasoning. An acquittal should be reported within the scope of this case, without treating it as a judgment on every political argument made around it.

The complaint concerned Gandhi’s remarks at a Bengaluru rally in May 2018, when Shah was BJP president. Hindustan Times reports that Vijay Mishra filed the complaint in August that year. Its chronology records the court summons in November 2023, Gandhi’s appearance and bail in February 2024, and the conclusion of arguments on October 12. The sequence explains why an eight-year-old campaign dispute returned to the news today; it is not a new complaint arising from Monday’s speeches. Hindustan Times says three witnesses were examined during the trial: Vijay Mishra, Anil Mishra and Ramchandra Dubey. It also records a request to compare Gandhi’s voice sample with the rally recording. The trial court rejected that request; the sessions court upheld the decision and the Allahabad High Court dismissed a challenge. Those procedural steps are part of the reported case history, rather than findings about the separate Kharge controversy. They also show why the judgment itself matters: procedural decisions and the eventual acquittal answer different legal questions, which should be explained from the relevant court record.

Gandhi reached Lucknow and travelled towards Sultanpur by road. The Hindu separately reports a collision involving vehicles trailing his convoy on the Purvanchal Expressway and says he was safe, citing police. The court verdict and the road incident should not be conflated. Exact injury totals, the cause of the collision and responsibility require further corroboration; none is assigned here. A political leader’s presence near an accident does not establish either wrongdoing or a deliberate attempt to cause it.

Meanwhile, the BJP announced demonstrations at its state headquarters over Kharge’s remarks in Patna. The Indian Express’s Monday live report and Moneycontrol both describe the protest call and demand for an apology. This advances the morning’s account of the row from statements by individual leaders to an announced party programme. It does not establish attendance or completion at every location. The BJP characterises the words as an insult to Modi’s late father; the Congress explanation reported in the morning contested that interpretation.

The two developments concern different institutions and different questions. Sultanpur’s court has delivered a reported verdict in Gandhi’s case. The dispute over Kharge remains a contest over language and political accountability. Neither the BJP’s protest programme nor Congress celebrations can substitute for reading the judgment. Monday’s next reporting should establish the court’s reasons, any response from the complainant and verified details of demonstrations, rather than turn one legal outcome into a forecast about national politics.