BHIWANDI: A Bhiwandi court in Maharashtra's Thane district on Saturday granted permanent exemption to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from appearing in the criminal defamation proceedings initiated against him on a complaint filed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker Rajesh Kunte.
The defamation case was filed against Rahul Gandhi on complaint by Kunte, who is secretary of RSS in Bhiwandi city.
Gandhi, during his political rally that was held during Lok Sabha election in 2014 had blamed RSS for the death of Mahatma Gandhi. Proceedings in case were going before the judicial magistrate of Bhiwandi since 2014.
Gandhi had appeared before the magistrate in June 2018 and pleaded not guilty. In 2022, Gandhi’s lawyer Narayan Iyer moved an application behalf of Gandhi seeking permanent exemption from appearing in court on ground that he was member of parliament, and had to visit his constituency and attend to party work.
However on April 1, Kunte’s lawyer Prabhod Jaywant filed an application opposing the exemption demanded by Rahul Gandhi brining on record new facts like Gandhi’s conviction by a Gujarat based Surat court in a defamation case in which he was given two years imprisonment sentence resulting in his consequent disqualification as MP.
However appearing for Gandhi, Advocat Narayan Iyer contended that his client had challenged the order passed by Surat court. He also argued that new development can not harm or disregard the exemption application already filed.
After hearing all parties at length, judicial magistrate Laxmikant Wadikar allowed Gandhi the permanent exemption with certain conditions.
Judge in his exemption order directed accused (Gandhi) to undertake that his duly designated advocate punctuality and regularly appears before court on each and every scheduled date and conduct the trial in absence of accused. Judge has also directed that the accused shall not challenge his identity and shall not claim any benifit for his absence before court and also asked Gandhi to remain present before court as and when directed.
The Bhiwandi court will now commence with recording of evidence on next hearing scheduled on June 3,2023.
