In response to comments linking the RSS to the murder of Gauri Lankesh, Rahul Gandhi filed a petition with the Bombay High Court

Rahul Gandhi, a member of Congress, has petitioned the Bombay High Court to overturn a defamation lawsuit brought against him for statements purportedly attributing the 2017 murder of writer Gauri Lankesh to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Gandhi’s appeal claimed that since they made the contested comments on separate times and are affiliated with two different organizations with unique or even opposing philosophies, their cases cannot be combined with those brought against Sitaram Yechury, the head of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

On December 5, Justice S. V. Kotwal set the case for hearing.

In order to take action against Rahul Gandhi, his mother and fellow Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, and Yechury for alleged defamation in violation of sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, lawyer Dhrutiman Joshi filed a private case against them before a magistrate in this city in 2017.

The complaint against Sonia Gandhi was rejected by the magistrate’s court in 2019, but Rahul Gandhi and Yechury were given notice.

They both submitted a request to have the complaint dismissed on the grounds that they shouldn’t be tried together.

However, the magistrate’s court denied the motion. As a result, Rahul Gandhi filed a petition with the HC in August of this year.

Gandhi’s case would be prejudiced by a combined trial since Yechury and he are members of different political parties and have extremely different, if not opposing, philosophies, according to the Congress leader’s appeal.

“The statements made by Accused No 1 (Gandhi) and 3 (Yechury) are independent statements made by different individuals at different points of time and there is no community of purpose, continuity of action by which it could be inferred that what they have spoken is in consequence of common design and their acts are connected with each other,” the motion stated.

Defamation lawsuits against Rahul Gandhi have been filed all around the nation. He was found guilty by a Surat court earlier this year, but the Supreme Court ultimately overturned the judgment.

A journalist and activist from Bengaluru named Gauri Lankesh was reportedly killed on September 5, 2017, outside her house by right-wing fanatics.