An MP-MLA court in Hathras district on Wednesday dismissed criminal disparagement pleas submitted versus Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for supposedly calling 3 acquitted males “implicated” in connection with the Hathras rape and murder case of 2020.
< source media ="(min-width:768px)" alt ="Rahul Gandhi (FILE PHOTO)" > < img src ="https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-img/img/2026/05/13/400x225/Rahul-Gandhi--FILE-PHOTO-_1778702434967.jpg"alt ="Rahul Gandhi (FILE PHOTO)"title ="Rahul Gandhi (FILE PHOTO)"width ="360"height ="202"loading ="eager">Extra civil judge (senior department)/ extra primary judicial magistrate, Hathras, Deepak Nath Saraswati declined the pleas under area 226 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita(BNSS).
Area 226 of the BNSS empowers a magistrate to dismiss a grievance if, after taking a look at the plaintiff and witnesses and thinking about any questions or examination (under area 225), he concerns the conclusion that there is no enough ground to continue.
The court pointed out a Supreme Court decision, stressing that a magistrate should exercise his “judicial mind” before summoning somebody.
“Summoning an implicated in a criminal case is a severe matter. Crook law can not be set in movement as a matter of course. It is not that the plaintiff can merely produce 2 witnesses to support the accusations and the law is used instantly,” the judge stated.
He even more clarified that a court order should show that the truths of the case and the relevant laws were thoroughly weighed before choosing to hire the implicated.
After examining the proof provided, the court concluded that the challenged declarations made by Gandhi were focused on criticising federal government policies and statements instead of an individual attack.
The court ruled that there were no adequate premises to continue with the grievance or summon the Rae Bareli MP. The problem pleas were dismissed.
“In today case, it is clear that the opposite celebration (Rahul Gandhi) is leader of opposition in Parliament and has civil liberties since of his status in parliament to talk about choices and policies of federal government and when needed to do so, criticise them. The realities of the case show that remarks made by the opposite celebration (Rahul Gandhi) were focused on protecting the interest of the victim’s household and hence such a declaration does not fall in the classification of disparagement as declared,” the judge specified.
“In such a situation, there are no enough premises to continue with criminal grievance nor there suffice premises to summon the opposite celebration (Rahul Gandhi), as such the petition was dismissed under area 226 of BNSS,” the judge mentioned.
The petitioner’s counsel Munna Singh Pundhir stated that the order, as and when gotten in information, will be studied, and the future strategy will be chosen appropriately.
Pundhir stated 3 criminal grievance cases were submitted on behalf of Ravi, Ram Kumar alias Ramu and Luvkush versus Gandhi, who is the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, in 2025 after he supposedly stated “the implicated are wandering totally free, while the victim’s household is locked inside your house”.
“The criminal grievance cases (were) submitted under Section 356( 2) (disparagement) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita before the extra chief judicial magistrate (MP/MLA) court in Hathras by petitioners versus Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 2015,” Pundhir stated.
According to the petition, Gandhi made objectionable remarks versus petitioners for”political gains” when he went to the victim’s household in December 2024.
In March 2023, a high court in Hathras acquitted 3 out of 4 implicated, consisting of Ravi, Ram Kumar and Luv Kush, in connection with the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit female in September 2020. Sandeep was condemned. In December 2024, Rahul Gandhi fulfilled the victim’s household and discussed his interaction in a post on X.
“The entire household still resides in worry. They are being dealt with like wrongdoers. They can stagnate easily – they are kept under monitoring of weapons and electronic cameras at all times,” he stated on X in Hindi.
“Instead of offering justice to the victim’s household, the federal government is dedicating numerous atrocities on them. On the other hand, the implicated are wandering easily.”
The petitioners stated that Gandhi made the remarks in spite of a court acquitting them.
With PTI inputs