Lucknow Court Grants Bail To Rahul Gandhi In Indian Army 'Defamation' Case

An MP-MLA Special Magistrate Court in Lucknow today granted bail to Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, in connection with a case concerning allegedly defamatory statements made against Indian soldiers during his Bharat Jodo YatraGandhi personally appeared before the Additional chief judicial magistrate Alok Verma and surrendered to seek bail after remaining absent during the last five hearings in the case.His counsel, Advocate Pranshu Agrawal argued that Gandhi is innocent and no offence is made out against himOn the other hand, the counsel for the Complainant argued that Gandhi had hurt the dignity and respect of the Indian army and attempted to bring its morale down and thus, he be not granted bail.The court, however, granted him bail on the condition of furnishing his personal bond in the sum of Rs. 20,000/- with two sureties of the like amount. Next date of hearing is August 13.He appeared following the rejection of his plea by the Allahabad High Court in May, wherein he had challenged both the defamation case and the summoning order passed in February 2025 by an MP-MLA court in Lucknow.Dismissing his plea, the Allahabad High Court had observed that freedom of speech and expression does not include the freedom to make statements which are defamatory to the Indian Army.A bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi had noted, "No doubt, Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India guarantees freedom of speech and expression, this freedom is subject to the reasonable restrictions and it does not include the freedom to make statements which are defamatory to any person or defamatory to the Indian Army".Briefly put, the defamation complaint, filed by former Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Director Uday Shankar Srivastava, states that the alleged derogatory remarks by Gandhi were made on December 16, 2022, during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.The complaint adds that Gandhi's objectionable comments, pertaining to a clash between the Indian and Chinese armies on December 9, 2022, had defamed the Indian Army.It has been specifically alleged that Gandhi repetitively stated in a very derogatory manner that the Chinese army is 'thrashing' our soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh, and that the Indian Press will not ask any question in this regard.Gandhi was represented by Advocates Pranshu Agrawal, Mohd Yasir Abbasi and Mohammed Samar Ansari.

Lucknow Court Grants Bail To Rahul Gandhi In Indian Army 'Defamation' Case

Sparsh Upadhyay

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