An MP-MLA court in Hathras district on Wednesday dismissed criminal defamation pleas filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly calling three acquitted men “accused” in connection with the Hathras rape and murder case of 2020.
Additional civil judge (senior division)/additional chief judicial magistrate, Hathras, Deepak Nath Saraswati rejected the pleas under section 226 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
Section 226 of the BNSS empowers a magistrate to dismiss a complaint if, after examining the complainant and witnesses and considering any inquiry or investigation (under section 225), he comes to the conclusion that there is no sufficient ground to proceed.
The court cited a Supreme Court verdict, emphasising that a magistrate must exercise his “judicial mind” before summoning someone.
“Summoning an accused in a criminal case is a serious matter. Criminal law cannot be set in motion as a matter of course. It is not that the complainant can simply produce two witnesses to support the allegations and the law is applied immediately,” the judge said.
He further clarified that a court order must reflect that the facts of the case and the applicable laws were carefully weighed before deciding to call upon the accused.
After reviewing the evidence presented, the court concluded that the disputed statements made by Gandhi were aimed at criticising government policies and announcements rather than a personal attack.
The court ruled that there were no sufficient grounds to proceed with the complaint or summon the Rae Bareli MP. Consequently, the complaint pleas were dismissed.
“In the present case, it is clear that the opposite party (Rahul Gandhi) is leader of opposition in Parliament and has constitutional rights because of his status in parliament to comment on decisions and policies of government and when required to do so, criticise them. The facts of the case reflect that comments made by the opposite party (Rahul Gandhi) were aimed at safeguarding the interest of the victim’s family and thus such a statement does not fall in the category of defamation as alleged,” the judge stated.
“In such a scenario, there are no sufficient grounds to proceed with criminal complaint nor there are sufficient grounds to summon the opposite party (Rahul Gandhi), as such the petition was dismissed under section 226 of BNSS,” the judge stated.
The petitioner’s counsel Munna Singh Pundhir said that the order, as and when received in detail, will be studied, and the future course of action will be decided accordingly.
Pundhir said three criminal complaint cases were filed on behalf of Ravi, Ram Kumar alias Ramu and Luvkush against Gandhi, who is the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, in 2025 after he allegedly said “the accused are roaming free, while the victim’s family is locked inside the house”.
“The criminal complaint cases (were) filed under Section 356(2) (defamation) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita before the additional chief judicial magistrate (MP/MLA) court in Hathras by petitioners against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi last year,” Pundhir said.
According to the petition, Gandhi made objectionable remarks against petitioners for “political gains” when he visited the victim’s family in December 2024.
In March 2023, a trial court in Hathras acquitted three out of four accused, including Ravi, Ram Kumar and Luv Kush, in connection with the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in September 2020. Sandeep was found guilty. In December 2024, Rahul Gandhi met the victim’s family and talked about his interaction in a post on X.
“The whole family still lives in fear. They are being treated like criminals. They cannot move freely – they are kept under surveillance of guns and cameras at all times,” he said on X in Hindi.
“Instead of giving justice to the victim’s family, the government is committing various atrocities on them. On the other hand, the accused are roaming freely.”
The petitioners said that Gandhi made the comments despite a court acquitting them.
With PTI inputs
