Sultanpur (UP), Sep 21: The hearing in a defamation case against Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in a MP-MLA court in this Uttar Pradesh district was postponed on Saturday due to a health camp organised by the bar council.

The matter will now be heard on October 1.

Plaintiff Vijay Mishra's lawyer Santosh Kumar Pandey said his client's statement was to be recorded on Saturday, but due to the health camp organised by the Bar Association on the civil court premises, the lawyers were busy in it and no court work could be done. "The court has postponed the matter to October 1," he said.

Gandhi has been accused of making objectionable comments during the 2018 Karnataka polls about Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was the BJP president then.

Mishra, a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician, filed a complaint against Gandhi in August 2018. Since then, the matter has been going on in the court.

Gandhi surrendered before the court during the "Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra" on February 20 and was granted bail on personal surety bonds of Rs 25,000 each.

Subsequently, the court issued several notices to the Congress leader to record his statement, but he was unable to appear before it due to the Lok Sabha polls.

Gandhi finally appeared before the MP-MLA court on July 26, got his statement recorded and said the case was filed to gain "cheap publicity".

The former Congress chief, who appeared before Special Judge Shubham Verma, said he never gave a statement against anyone that could lead to a case of defamation, his lawyer Kashi Prasad Shukla had told reporters.

The matter was posted for further proceedings on August 12 but was deferred as the judge was on leave.

On the next two dates on August 23 and September 5, the hearing did not take place as the plaintiff could not appear in the court due to ill health.

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Belagavi (Karnataka), Nov 28: A 31-year-old man was shot at allegedly by the relatives of his love interest following a scuffle here, police said on Thursday.

The incident happened in Mahantesh Nagar at around 8.30 pm on Wednesday, they said.

According to Police Commissioner Iada Martin Marbaniang, Praneeth Kumar, a medical sales representative and his love interest were discussing things at another friend's home over dinner, when the woman's relatives including her sister and brother came there and "a scuffle ensued between them and Kumar. One of the woman's relatives fired two rounds from a pistol, and a bullet hit Kumar," he said.

Explaining how things unfolded at the spot of occurrence, Iada Martin Marbaniang said, first, Kumar went to his friend's place for dinner. There, he shared his interest in a woman and the difficulties he had faced in this regard. The friend then called the woman and invited her to join them. When the woman arrived, she and Kumar discussed the situation before the woman's family members, including her sister and brother, also came to the friend's place, he added.

"We have registered two cases in connection with the incident at Malamaruthi police station and have arrested three people, including the girl, her sister and brother in this regard," he said.