Rahul Gandhi Expresses Regret in Madhya Pradesh High Court Over Defamation Case
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday expressed regret before the Madhya Pradesh High Court over remarks he made during the 2018 Assembly election campaign. The remarks led to a criminal defamation case filed by Kartikeya Singh Chouhan, son of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
During the hearing of Gandhi’s petition challenging the criminal proceedings, his counsel informed the Jabalpur Bench of the High Court that the Congress leader stood by a public clarification issued a day after the speech and regretted the erroneous reference to Kartikeya Singh Chouhan.
According to submissions made on Gandhi’s behalf, the allegedly defamatory statement was made at an election rally in Jhabua on October 29, 2018, while referring to the Panama Papers controversy. Gandhi’s counsel told the court that the Congress leader realised the following day that Kartikeya Singh Chouhan’s name had been mentioned by mistake. On October 30, 2018, Gandhi publicly clarified that he had intended to refer to the son of the then Chhattisgarh chief minister, and not Kartikeya Singh Chouhan or his father, the then Madhya Pradesh chief minister.
The case is part of a series of defamation cases filed against Gandhi for his political statements. The court has not yet delivered its judgment on the petition challenging the criminal proceedings.
