Tag: defamation

Defamation case: Maha court grants Rahul permanent exemption from appearance

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Thane: A court in Maharashtra’s Thane district on Saturday granted a permanent exemption to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from appearing before it in a defamation case filed against him by a Rashtriya Sawyamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary.
Bhiwandi First Class Judicial Magistrate Laxmikant C Wadikar who heard Gandhi’s application filed through his counsel Narayan Iyer observed that the Congress leader deserves a permanent exemption.
The magistrate also set June 3 for recording evidence in the defamation suit filed by local RSS worker Rajesh Kunte.

Kunte had in 2014 filed a private complaint before the Bhiwandi magistrate’s court after watching Gandhi’s speech where he allegedly accused the RSS of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. Kunte claimed this statement slandered the reputation of the RSS.
Gandhi had appeared before the court in June 2018 and pleaded not guilty.
“Accused Rahul Rajiv Gandhi is hereby exempted from appearance in the court till the further order passed by the court subject to following conditions,” reads the order, a copy of which was accessed by PTI.
“Accused to undertake that his duly designated advocate punctually and regularly appears before court on each and every scheduled date and conduct the trial in absence of accused,” says one of the conditions. “Accused to remain present in court as and when directed,” reads another.
Rahul Gandhi, who was recently disqualified as an MP after his conviction by a Surat court in a defamation case, had last year sought exemption from appearance in the Bhiwandi court on the grounds that he was a Delhi resident and a Lok Sabha member who had to visit his constituency (Wayanad), attend party work and travel a lot. Gandhi had requested that whenever required, he be allowed to be represented by his lawyer in the hearing.

Kunte recently argued that since Gandhi is no longer a parliamentarian, he should not be given an exemption in the matter.
The Surat court had on March 23 sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his “why all thieves have Modi surname” remarks. The court also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court. The next day, he was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha.
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#Defamation #case #Maha #court #grants #Rahul #permanent #exemption #appearance
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 15, 2023
RSS leader Ram Madhav sends defamation suit to Satyapal Malik

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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Ram Madhav has issued a defamation notice to former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik in response to his remarks during an interview in which he claimed Madhav attempted to influence him over a health insurance scheme deal involving a Rs 300 crore kickback.
Malik stated in October 2021 that a top RSS functionary offered him a bribe of Rs 300 crore to clear two papers pertaining to ‘Ambani’ when he was governor of J&K. Malik identified the RSS leader as Madhav in an interview with a YouTube channel.
On Tuesday, Congress convened a news conference during which they emphasised the interview and questioned why the CBI or ED is not knocking on Ram Madhav’s door in response to Satya Pal Malik’s charges.

“Why isn’t the CBI or the ED knocking on Ram Madhav’s door now that a former governor has exposed him?” Khera wondered.
According to the Congress leader, the CBI publicly questioned the former governor at its headquarters, but Ram Madhav is yet to be summoned for interrogation.
“The ED-CBI raids and interrogates opposition leaders on a regular basis, so why not BJP leaders?” “What’s with the double standards?” he wondered.
“If Malik is telling the truth, why hasn’t the CBI, ED, or other agencies taken action against Madhav? Otherwise, there should be action taken against Malik if his claims are false,” he remarked.
According to Madhav, they are ‘completely false allegations.’

“The CBI has already conducted a thorough investigation into the matter. I intend to file defamation charges against those who spread these false allegations very soon,” the RSS leader stated.
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#RSS #leader #Ram #Madhav #sends #defamation #suit #Satyapal #Malik
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 13, 2023
Will file criminal defamation case against ED officials: AAP MP Sanjay Singh

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New Delhi: AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Thursday said he will file a criminal defamation case against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials for “falsely” naming him in their excise policy case chargesheet.
Addressing a press conference here, Singh alleged that the ED is “involved in making false cases without any facts or evidence”.
Responding to the Singh’s allegations, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said it seems that the fear of arrest is haunting the AAP MP with each passing day.

The AAP leader also invited those who have been victimised by the agency to come forward and inform him.
“As the Privileges Committee of Parliament has asked me to expose how the ED is fabricating false cases, I will bring your case and information before the Privileges Committee. It’s time to hold the ED accountable for their abuse of power and false accusations,” he added.
Singh accused ED of targeting him after he raised his voice against the agency’s actions in the Parliament. He said he had given a speech on ED-CBI in the Parliament on December 12 last year, and his name appeared in ED’s chargesheet on January 6 this year.
“I will file a criminal defamation case against ED director S K Mishra, officer Bhanu Priya who signed the chargesheet, and IO Joginder Singh,” he said.
The AAP leader also alleged that he had sought an appointment with ED 11 times to give information on the Adani issue. However, the facts and documents were received by the ED after two months.

Reading out the contents of the chargesheet, Singh said it claimed that on October 1, 2022, Dinesh Arora had told the ED that the transfer of a liquor shop of Amit Arora was done by Manish Sisodia on the direction of Sanjay Singh.
Singh alleged that the “ED created a false chargesheet by creating a fake case, simply because he was speaking out against Modi-Adani corruption”.
Singh presented Arora’s statement, which ED had recorded on October 1, 2022 which mentions that Excise Commissioner Rahul Singh transferred Amit Arora’s shop in a routine manner. There was no mention of Sanjay Singh’s name even remotely in Arora’s statement recorded by the ED, he claimed.
Singh also presented Dinesh Arora’s statement to the court under section 164, which states that when Amit Arora insisted that Dinesh Arora bring up the matter of his shop’s transfer, neither did Dinesh Arora talk to the then Deputy CM nor to Sanjay Singh.
“The ED’s attempt to implicate me in a fabricated case is nothing but a political move to suppress my voice against the Adani row. It is evident that the ED is creating a false case to fulfil its own agenda. I won’t be silenced by their baseless accusations and intimidation tactics,” he said.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said it seems that the fear of arrest is haunting MP Sanjay Singh with each passing day as he is realising that summons of ED may strike his door any day now.
Sachdeva claimed that Singh was speaking in favour of liquor baron Dinesh Arora because he knows that Arora’s evidence will not only nail Manish Sisodia but also him (Singh) and sooner or later Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal too.
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#file #criminal #defamation #case #officials #AAP #Sanjay #Singh
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 13, 2023
Trump seeks delay of defamation trial, citing ‘media frenzy’ caused by Manhattan indictment

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Tacopina acknowledged that Trump draws blanket media coverage at nearly all times — but he said Google searches indicated a particularly intense surge of coverage of the charges brought by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg earlier this month. Those charges include claims that Trump falsified business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star to cover up an affair. Because those charges relate to Carroll’s claims of “sexual misconduct,” Tacopina said, there’s a particularly acute risk that jurors in the civil trial will conflate the issues.
Kaplan has seemed intent on charging ahead with Trump’s civil case despite the surrounding chaos caused by the indictment. He recently backed a bid to permit jurors in the civil trial anonymity, citing the potential threats to their safety caused by Trump’s rhetoric — particularly toward Bragg and the judge in his criminal case.
But Trump’s effort to delay the civil case until at least May 23 underscores the extraordinary challenge of subjecting a former president — particularly one who garners intense media coverage at all times — to a civil or criminal trial before an impartial jury.
Trump’s tangle of legal threats is only likely to intensify, as several other criminal matters approach the charging stage. That includes an investigation by Atlanta-area DA Fani Willis, who has said charging decisions for Trump and his allies are “imminent” in a case about his bid to subvert Georgia’s election laws in 2020. At the federal level, special counsel Jack Smith appears to be reaching the final stages of his probe into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office, and he’s begun penetrating Trump’s inner circle in a separate probe of Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.
Tacopina didn’t mention those other looming matters. Rather he said he expected a “cooling off” period after the Manhattan indictment to arrive by late May, when the immediacy of the Bragg news had faded. The next big milestone in that case, he said, was in August, when Trump is expected to file a motion to dismiss his case.
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#Trump #seeks #delay #defamation #trial #citing #media #frenzy #caused #Manhattan #indictment
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 12, 2023
Cong targets Ram Madhav, RSS leader says he will file defamation suit

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New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday asked why the CBI or ED is not knocking at the doors of RSS leader Ram Madhav after former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik alleged that he was involved in corruption, a charge strongly rejected by the former BJP general secretary.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said in October 2021, Malik had claimed that a senior RSS functionary had offered him a bribe of Rs 300 crore to clear two files related to “Ambani” when he was the J-K governor. He claimed that in an interview to a YouTube channel on Monday, Malik named the RSS functionary as Madhav.
Asked about it, Madhav told PTI that these are “totally false allegations”.

“The CBI has already thoroughly investigated the matter. I will be filing defamation charges against the peddlers of these false allegations very soon,” the RSS leader said.
Malik was the governor of Jammu and Kashmir between August 2018 and October 2019, and in October 2021 he was the governor of Meghalaya.
“Why is the CBI or ED not knocking at Ram Madhav’s doors, given that a former governor has exposed him,” Khera asked.
The Congress leader said the CBI had openly questioned the former governor at its headquarters but why has Ram Madhav has not been called for questioning yet.
“The ED-CBI raids or interrogates opposition leaders time and again, but why not BJP leaders? Why these double standards?

Khera also played out the purported interview of Malik.
“If Malik is speaking the truth then why the CBI, ED or other agencies have not taken action against Madhav, else there should be action against Malik if his claims are untrue,” he said.
Khera also claimed that Malik has sought Z-plus security as a former governor but he has only been provided a PSO and is living in his own house, whereas former Congres leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has been given a government bungalow and Z-plus security.
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#Cong #targets #Ram #Madhav #RSS #leader #file #defamation #suit
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 11, 2023
Himanta says he will file defamation case against Rahul over his ‘Adani’ tweet

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Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said he will file a defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over a tweet that linked him to the Adani group.
Addressing a press conference here, Sarma said the defamation case will be filed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Guwahati on April 14.
“Whatever Rahul Gandhi tweeted, it’s defamatory. We will respond after the PM leaves the state,” he said.

“Definitely, a defamation case will be filed in Guwahati,” he added.
Gandhi on Saturday took a swipe at some leaders who have quit the Congress in recent years and some of whom have joined the BJP as he kept up his offensive against the government over the Adani issue.
“They hide the truth, that’s why they mislead everyday! The question remains the same – whose Rs 20,000 crore benami money is in Adani’s companies?” Gandhi asked in a tweet in Hindi, sharing an image with ‘Adani’ written as an acronym of sorts with letters of the names of the leaders.
He cited the names of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Kiran Kumar Reddy and Anil K Antony in his tweet. After quitting the Congress, Azad formed his own party, while the rest joined the BJP. Scindia is now a Union minister and Sarma the chief minister of Assam.
Quoting Gandhi’s tweet, Sarma had earlier tweeted, “It was our decency to have never asked you, on where have you concealed the proceeds of crime from the Bofors and National Herald Scams. And how you allowed Ottavio Quattrocchi to escape the clutches of Indian justice multiple times. Any way we will meet in the Court of Law (sic).”

PM Modi will visit Guwahati to attend a host of programmes, including the state’s attempt to create a record on Bihu with over 11,000 dancers and drummers.
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#Himanta #file #defamation #case #Rahul #Adani #tweet
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 9, 2023
Rahul Gandhi to file appeal in Surat court against conviction in defamation case

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Surat: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be in Gujarat’s Surat city on Monday to file an appeal in a court against his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remarks.
Senior Congress leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, chief ministers of three Congress-ruled states, and other national and state party leaders are likely to accompany him to the court, sources said.
Gandhi’s lawyers said the matter is likely to be taken up for hearing by the sessions court on Monday itself.

The Congress leader will seek suspension of his sentence by the sessions court, they said.
Gandhi will land in Surat at around 2 pm, as per the Congress sources.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Congress Rajya Sabha member K C Venugopal, and other senior party leaders will also be in Surat.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, and Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu are also likely to be in the city as Gandhi moves court, the sources said.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Varma here had on March 23 convicted 52-year-old Gandhi and sentenced him to two years in jail in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his “Modi surname” remarks.

It had held the Congress leader guilty under Indian Penal Code sections 499 and 500.
The court had also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to appeal in a higher court.
The former Congress chief was on March 24 disqualified from the Lok Sabha following his conviction by the Surat court in the case.
Following his disqualification, Gandhi would not be able to contest elections for eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction and sentence.
The case was filed against Gandhi on a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi for the Congress leader’s alleged remarks “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?”
Gandhi, who had served as an MP from Wayanad in Kerala, made the remarks while addressing a rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019, during the Lok Sabha elections campaign.
The sentence of two years invited his disqualification from the membership of Parliament under provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The RP Act holds that an MP or a member of the legislative Assembly (MLA) convicted for any offense and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of conviction.
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#Rahul #Gandhi #file #appeal #Surat #court #conviction #defamation #case
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 3, 2023
Remarks on RSS: Another defamation suit filed against Rahul Gandhi

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After the conviction for his remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, now another defamation case has been filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Haridwar Court for his alleged comment referring to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as the ‘Kauravas of the twenty-first century.’
Kamal Bhadauria, an RSS worker, filed a criminal defamation lawsuit. The matter will be heard by the Court on April 12.
“Kauravas of the 21st century wear Khakhi half-pants and run shakhas. Besides them stand two to three richest people of the country,” he allegedly said in his remarks.

The petition further alleged that Gandhi insulted ‘Pujaris’ in his speech and hurt the feelings of the people of the country.
Gandhi allegedly made these remarks at the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Haryana.
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#Remarks #RSS #defamation #suit #filed #Rahul #Gandhi

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 1, 2023
Delhi HC sets aside summons to ‘The Wire’ editor in defamation case

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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday set aside a summons issued to the editor and deputy editor of online news portal “The Wire” in a criminal defamation case over a publication on a dossier allegedly depicting the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here as a “den of organised sex racket”.
The complaint was made by Amita Singh, Professor and Chairperson of the Centre for Study of Law and Governance at the JNU, against several people, including the editor and deputy editor of “The Wire”, for allegedly imputing in the April 2016 publication that she had prepared the dossier in question.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said he was unable to discern how the article could be said to have defamed the complainant when it “nowhere says that the respondent (Singh) is involved in the wrongful activities, nor does it make any other derogatory reference to her in connection therewith”.
The controversial dossier exposed wrongful activities that were stated to be going on in the JNU campus and that Singh was leading a team of people who compiled the document, the judge added.
The court also said the subject publication itself was not before the magisterial court in accordance with section 65B of the Evidence Act.
“On a plain reading of the extract of the subject publication, which is all that was contained in the complaint, there appears to be nothing ‘defamatory’ in it, as understood in law, since all it says is that the dossier calls out certain wrongdoing in the university. Since, on the point of law, there can be no oral evidence in substitution of a certificate under section 65B of the Evidence Act, there was no material before the learned magistrate based on which the summoning order could have been passed,” the court said.
It further said the complainant’s grievance was that the comments made by certain other accused persons against her were defamatory but the lower court did not summon them.
“Summoning order dated 07.01.2017 made by the learned metropolitan magistrate in criminal complaint bearing CC No. 32203/2016 cannot be sustained in law, and is accordingly quashed and set aside,” the court ordered.

The complainant had argued before the lower court that the accused persons had launched a hate campaign against her to malign her reputation.
The editor and deputy editor of “The Wire” had challenged the summoning order before the high court on the ground that there was no material on record on the basis of which the magistrate could have summoned them.
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#Delhi #sets #summons #Wire #editor #defamation #case
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 29, 2023
Ready to wage legal battle: Telangana BJP chief on KTR’s defamation notice

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Hyderabad: Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday announced that he was ready to wage a legal battle on the defamation notices served on him by Telangana IT minister K T Rama Rao in connection with the leakage of Telangana State Public Service Commission question papers.
Reacting to the media reports that KTR had served a legal notice on him threatening to file a defamation case for Rs 100 crore if he did not tender a public apology, Sanjay said he won’t succumb to any such empty threats.
“There is no question of tendering any public apology. I am ready to fight legally for justice,” the BJP president said in a statement.
He demanded that KTR should owe an explanation to the people of Telangana as to how he had amassed such a huge wealth in the last nine years. “Everybody knows before the Telangana movement, KTR was washing utensils in the US. Now, he is worth hundreds of crores. Yet, he is craving for more money in the name of defamation,” he alleged.
Sanjay said if KTR’s reputation and image were worth Rs 100 crore, how much money should be paid to 30 lakh unemployed youths whose future was in jeopardy due to the leakage of question papers because of the misrule of the BRS government.
Describing KTR as a ‘self-styled intellectual’, the BJP president said the chief minister’s son was considering himself as an intellectual par excellence just because he could speak a few English words.
“He is stupid and cannot tolerate somebody questioning his failures and exposing the goofs-up in the government. He is so arrogant that he would use the police force to beat up the protestors who agitated against the government,” he said.
Sanjay lashed out at the BRS working president for using ‘derogatory’ language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi without even bothering to respect the latter’s age and stature.

He wondered why the BRS leaders and ministers were trying to brush aside the leakage of TSPSC question papers as an insignificant issue.
“I am surprised how the issues being probed by the SIT are being leaked to KTR. Initially, he said only two people were involved in the case but now, when more and more names are coming out, he has gone silent. Why haven’t the police filed a criminal case against KTR for trying to influence the probe, but are targeting us when we questioned the wrongdoings?” he asked.
Sanjay reiterated the allegation that as an IT minister, KTR alone would be held responsible for the goofs-up in his departments — right from the issuance of birth and death certificates to the question paper leakage; and from the death of children by falling in sewerage canals to the mauling of children by dogs.
“He should quit his post immediately owning moral responsibility,” the BJP leader said.
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#Ready #wage #legal #battle #Telangana #BJP #chief #KTRs #defamation #notice
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 29, 2023