Sultanpur (UP), Feb 20 (IANS): A special court in Sultanpur on Tuesday granted bail to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case dating back to 2018.

Advocate Santosh Pandey told reporters, “Rahul Gandhi surrendered in the court today and the court took him into custody for 30-45 minutes. After that, his bail application was submitted and was accepted. The further date has not been given yet.”

The court asked Rahul to submit two bail bonds of Rs 25,000 each.

The case, initiated by Vijay Mishra on August 4, 2018, stemmed from remarks Gandhi purportedly made against Union Home Minister Amit Shah during a Press conference in Bengaluru on May 8, 2018 during the Karnataka elections.

The complainant cited Rahul Gandhi's statement during which he asserted that while the BJP professes a commitment to honest and clean politics it is led by a “party President who is an accused in a murder case.”

At the time of Gandhi's comment, Amit Shah was the BJP President. However, approximately four years prior to Gandhi's remark, a special CBI court in Mumbai had cleared Shah of charges in a 2005 fake encounter case. This decision came during Shah's tenure as the Minister of State for Home in Gujarat.

Rahul Gandhi was unable to attend the previous hearing in the special MP-MLA court on January 18 due to his commitments to the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

Talking to reporters, Vijay Mishra, the complainant, said, "The BJP is the biggest party of the country. Calling its then President a murderer is unjustifiable."