Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has received significant legal relief in a nearly eight-year-old defamation case. Justice Pramod Kumar Agarwal of Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed the petition filed by Rahul Gandhi, closing the proceedings pending before it. The order also clarified that the proceedings in the complaint case pending before the Special MP-MLA Court in Bhopal will also be considered closed. This case relates to defamation complaint filed by Kartikeya Singh Chouhan against Rahul Gandhi. During the hearing, an application submitted by Rahul Gandhi stated that Kartikeya Singh Chouhan’s name was mistakenly mentioned in an alleged statement made during election campaigning in Jhabua in 2018.

 

According to the application, Rahul Gandhi was referring to the son of the former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, whose name had surfaced in Panama Papers controversy. Rahul Gandhi also stated that he publicly expressed regret the next day in a clarification and he still stands by that clarification. A separate application was also filed in the High Court to record this regret. On the other hand, Kartikeya Singh Chouhan filed a written response in the High Court stating that in view of Rahul Gandhi’s expressed regret and clarification, he no longer wishes to pursue the dispute. His lawyer requested the court to dismiss the pending proceedings in both the High Court and the lower court. Senior advocate Vivek Tankha and other lawyers appeared on behalf of Rahul Gandhi during the hearing, while advocate Sankalp Kochhar represented Kartikeya Chouhan.

 

After considering the consent of both the parties and documents on record, the High Court held that the applicant had expressed regret for alleged statement and that the complainant did not wish to pursue further proceedings. The court closed the proceedings before it and ordered proceedings in Complaint Case No. SCPPM 03/2018, pending before the Special MP-MLA Court in Bhopal, to be considered closed. This long-standing political and legal dispute finally came to an end.