{"id":62496,"date":"2024-02-20T20:46:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T20:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/indias-gandhi-bailed-in-defamation-case-over-murder-remarks-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-02-20T20:46:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T20:46:12","slug":"indias-gandhi-bailed-in-defamation-case-over-murder-remarks-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/indias-gandhi-bailed-in-defamation-case-over-murder-remarks-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"India’s Gandhi bailed in defamation case over ‘murder’ remarks | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

An Indian court Tuesday bailed senior opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case brought against him for referring to the home minister as an accused murderer — his latest legal travails ahead of national elections.<\/p>\n

Critics have accused India’s government of using the justice system to target political rivals, with several opposition figures the subject of active criminal investigations.<\/p>\n

Gandhi, 53, faces at least 10 other defamation cases and was briefly disqualified from parliament last year after being convicted of criminal libel in an unrelated case.<\/p>\n

He appeared in court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh where his bail application was accepted, lawyer Santosh Pandey told reporters outside court.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s case stems from 2018 remarks in which he referred to home minister Amit Shah, a key confidante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a “murder accused”.<\/p>\n

Shah was accused of ordering police to carry out the extrajudicial killing of a gangster in 2005 and two others while serving as home minister in Gujarat state.<\/p>\n

He was jailed briefly before being acquitted of murder, extortion and kidnapping charges in 2014 after Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won that year’s elections in a landslide.<\/p>\n

Read also:\u00a0India’s Congress party says bank accounts frozen over $25m tax demand<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The case against Gandhi was first lodged in 2018 by a ruling party official and has slowly been snaking its way through India’s glacial criminal justice system since.<\/p>\n

Gandhi is the son, grandson and great-grandson of a dynasty of former Indian prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.<\/p>\n

He is one of the leading faces of an opposition alliance seeking to challenge Modi in this year’s general election, expected to begin in April.<\/p>\n

Gandhi has struggled to challenge the electoral juggernaut of Modi and his nationalist appeals to the country’s Hindu majority, losing the past two elections.<\/p>\n

He was convicted last year of criminal libel and handed a two-year sentence, which was suspended by a higher court but raised concerns over democratic backsliding in the world’s most populous country.<\/p>\n

Last week Gandhi’s Congress party said authorities had frozen its bank accounts after an investigation over its 2018-19 tax returns and issued a payment demand for 2.1 billion rupees ($25.3 million) in relation to its probe.<\/p>\n

India’s main financial investigation agency, the Enforcement Directorate, has ongoing investigations into several other leading opposition politicians.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Indian court Tuesday bailed senior opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case brought against him for referring to the home minister as an accused murderer — his latest legal travails ahead of national elections. Critics have accused India’s government of using the justice system to target political rivals, with several opposition figures the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/Rahul-Gandhi-(2)1700590050-0\/Rahul-Gandhi-(2)1700590050-0.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t