Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was acquitted on Monday by an MP/MLA court in Uttar Pradesh in a defamation case related to remarks he made against Amit Shah, the BJP president at the time, in 2018. Gandhi was present in court when the verdict was delivered.

Rahul Gandhi had made the remarks at a rally in Bengaluru ahead of the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections.

Vijay Mishra, former chairman of the Sultanpur District Cooperative Bank and a local BJP leader, filed the defamation complaint against Gandhi on August 4, 2018.

Rahul Gandhi appeared before the court in 2023 and secured bail. The court had initially scheduled the verdict for October 13, but the date was later changed to October 26.