In a relief for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Bombay High Court has quashed a magistrate’s order which permitted an RSS worker to file fresh and additional documents in the criminal defamation case being heard. RSS worker Rajesh Kunte filed a complaint of defamation in the Bhiwandi magistrate court in 2014, alleging that Rahul Gandhi had made false and defamatory statements during a speech and claimed the RSS was behind Mahatma Gandhi’s murder conspiracy.
The Bhiwandi magistrate court in Thane district had permitted Kunte to place on record the transcript of the speech made by Gandhi in 2023, this being a part of a 2014 petition filed by Gandhi for quashing the summons issued against him.
However, Kunte argued that the Congress MP had “unambiguously owned up to the speech and its contents” by placing the transcript in his petition.
Gandhi appealed against this order of the magistrate before the high court. The single bench of Justice Prithviraj Chavan disposed of Gandhi’s petition on Friday.
