Hathras (UP), Jul 28 (PTI) A special court here on Monday fixed August 21 as the next date of hearing in a defamation case filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on an alleged gang-rape incident that took place in Hathras in 2020.
Advocate Munna Singh Pundir said he had filed three cases against Gandhi in the MP-MLA court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Deepak Nath Saraswati on behalf of Ravi, Ram Kumar alias Ramu and Luvkush, who were acquitted of rape charges in connection with the 2020 incident that took place in the Bulgadhi area.
“We have got a single date for all three cases. Evidence is yet to be presented in the cases of Ravi and Luvkush, while it has been presented in Ram Kumar’s case,” he said, adding that once evidence is presented in the first two cases, orders will be passed together.
Pundir said before summoning Gandhi, he will be sent a notice and his side will also be heard.
After evidence is presented together on August 21, a notice is likely to be sent to the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, his side will be heard and an order will be passed for trial.
A Dalit girl from a village was allegedly gangraped in September 2020 and she died days later during treatment in a Delhi hospital. Four men from the village were accused of committing the crime. Three of them — Ramkumar, Luvkush and Ravi — were acquitted, while Sandeep was found guilty and is still in jail.
The case was latched onto by opposition leaders, who launched a fierce attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh.
Gandhi visited Hathras and met the victim’s family members. He later posted on X that keeping the victim’s family members locked in their house while the rape accused roam around freely is against the basic spirit of the Constitution framed by B R Ambedkar.
He had also accused the BJP government of not fulfilling the promise of shifting the victim’s family members by giving them a house at another place.
“We, the people of Congress and INDIA alliance, who believe in Ambedkarji’s Constitution, will together help that family — we will renovate their house,” the Congress leader had said in his post on the microblogging platform.
Pundir said three accused were acquitted by the court, yet Gandhi posted on his X handle that rapists are roaming around freely. PTI COR ABN RC
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