LUCKNOW: A Lucknow court on Tuesday granted bail to Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi after he appeared in a defamation case filed over his purported remarks on Army personnel, his lawyer said.The case relates to alleged defamatory remarks against Indian soldiers made during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022, Gandhi’s counsel, advocate Pranshu Agarwal, said.Following his appearance, the court released him on bail, the lawyer added. The bail was granted after Gandhi furnished a bail bond and sureties as directed by the court.Gandhi appeared in a courtroom full of lawyers. He was taken to the judge’s chamber, where the formalities of filing the bond and sureties took place.The Congress leader was summoned as an accused after the court took cognisance of the defamation complaint.Gandhi had earlier moved the high court seeking relief but did not succeed.He came to court accompanied by the party’s state unit president Ajay Rai and in-charge Avinash Pande.“He (Gandhi) is scheduled to attend the court hearing and would return to Delhi later in the day. He is likely to come to Uttar Pradesh again to visit his constituency Raebareli over the next few days,” Rai told PTI before the hearing.Security was heightened along the route of his travel and in and around the court premises.The defamation complaint was filed by one Uday Shankar Srivastava, a retired director of the Border Roads Organisation (equivalent to the rank of colonel in the Army).The complaint states that on December 16, 2022, Gandhi, while addressing various media personnel and the public during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, mentioned the clash between the Indian Army and the Chinese Army on the Arunachal Pradesh border on December 9, 2022, and said that “people will ask what all about Bharat Jodo Yatra, but will not ask even once about the beating of our soldiers by Chinese soldiers”.The complainant alleged that his sentiments were hurt by Gandhi’s statement about the alleged beating of Indian soldiers by Chinese soldiers.On February 11, the special court ordered Gandhi to be summoned on charges of defamation.
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