The Sultanpur District Court on Monday acquitted Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in the 2018 defamation case regarding remarks against Amit Shah.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Special Magistrate) Shubham Verma presided over the special MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh and ruled that the 2018 remarks made by Gandhi regarding Union Home Minister Amit Shah were not defamatory in nature.
WHO IS JUDGE SHUBHAM VERMA?
Judge Shubham Verma is an Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division) and Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) who presides over the special MP-MLA court in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Appointed to the judicial service on February 27, 2015. Promoted to Civil Judge / Civil Judge (Senior Division) and Class-I officer status on January
7, 2019 Over his career, his postings have spanned several districts in Uttar Pradesh, including Basti, Mau, Ghaziabad, and Sultanpur.
EDUCATIONAL PROFILE
Judge Verma holds multiple law and academic degrees:
LL.M. (Master of Laws) obtained in 2021
LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) completed in 2010
B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) completed in 2007
He is slated to serve until his retirement on July 31, 2048. He is originally from the Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh and is the son of Ravindra Verma.
RAHUL GANDHI’S ACQUITTAL
Rahul Gandhi was acquitted by a special MP-MLA court in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, in a criminal defamation case filed over remarks he made against then-BJP national president and current Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2018.
Local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Mishra (former chairman of the Sultanpur District Cooperative Bank) filed a criminal defamation complaint under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Rahul Gandhi on August 4, 2018.
The case stemmed from a speech Gandhi made during an election campaign in Bengaluru ahead of the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections. In the speech, Gandhi linked Shah to the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. A special CBI court discharged Shah in the case in 2014.
Gandhi was summoned to face trial on November 27, 2023, after which he appeared in court and secured bail. During the trial, Gandhi denied the charges, stating that the complaint was filed out of political malice and vendetta to tarnish his image.
Meanwhile, earlier today, a few cars in Rahul Gandhi’s convoy were involved in an accident on the way to Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur, where Gandhi was travelling to the Special MP/MLA court. The convoy was travelling on the Purvanchal Expressway.
With ANI, agency inputs
