A Bengaluru court on Friday granted bail to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in connection with a case filed by the BJP's Karnataka unit for issuing "defamatory" advertisements in mainstream newspapers.
The advertisement ahead of the Assembly polls last year accused the then BJP government in the state of indulging in large-scale corruption during its 2019-2023 rule.
The Congress, alleging that a 40 per cent commission was levied for the execution of all public work, also released a 'corruption rate card' targeting the previous government in the advertisement.
BJP MLC and General Secretary Keshava Prasad had filed a defamation case claiming that Congress leaders, including D K Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah and Rahul Gandhi had put up false advertisements against its party leaders, including the then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
On June 1, the court granted bail to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress chief, after they appeared before it in connection with the defamation case.
"During the 2023 assembly election, the Congress had published an advertisement saying that the BJP is a trouble-maker government. This is a false allegation. We approached the court. Two of them have secured bail. Rahul Gandhi sought exemption, citing the last phase of election. Today he promised to appear before court," said Vinod, advocate for the BJP.
Karnataka's BJP unit had asked the court to issue a non-bailable warrant against Rahul Gandhi for not showing up on June 1, despite Congress stating that Rahul was not involved in the publication of the advertisement.
Rahul Gandhi, however, was let off the hook and Judge K N Shivakumar directed him to appear before the Bengaluru court on June 7 without fail.
After being granted bail today, Rahul Gandhi was seen leaving the court.
