Maha court grants Rahul Gandhi permanent exemption from appearance in defamation case
Thane (PTI): A court in Maharashtra's Thane district on Saturday granted a permanent exemption to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from appearing before it in a defamation case filed against him by a Rashtriya Sawyamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary.
Bhiwandi First Class Judicial Magistrate Laxmikant C Wadikar who heard Gandhi's application filed through his counsel Narayan Iyer observed that the Congress leader deserves a permanent exemption.
The magistrate also set June 3 for recording evidence in the defamation suit filed by local RSS worker Rajesh Kunte.
Kunte had in 2014 filed a private complaint before the Bhiwandi magistrate's court after watching Gandhi's speech where he allegedly accused the RSS of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. Kunte claimed this statement slandered the reputation of the RSS.
Gandhi had appeared before the court in June 2018 and pleaded not guilty.
"Accused Rahul Rajiv Gandhi is hereby exempted from appearance in the court till the further order passed by the court subject to following conditions," reads the order, a copy of which was accessed by PTI.
"Accused to undertake that his duly designated advocate punctually and regularly appears before court on each and every scheduled date and conduct the trial in absence of accused," says one of the conditions. "Accused to remain present in court as and when directed," reads another.
Rahul Gandhi, who was recently disqualified as an MP after his conviction by a Surat court in a defamation case, had last year sought exemption from appearance in the Bhiwandi court on the grounds that he was a Delhi resident and a Lok Sabha member who had to visit his constituency (Wayanad), attend party work and travel a lot. Gandhi had requested that whenever required, he be allowed to be represented by his lawyer in the hearing.
Kunte recently argued that since Gandhi is no longer a parliamentarian, he should not be given an exemption in the matter.
The Surat court had on March 23 sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his "why all thieves have Modi surname" remarks. The court also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court. The next day, he was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha.
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Govt loses Rs 1,757 cr as BSNL fails to bill RJio for sharing infra: CAG
New Delhi: The government suffered a loss of Rs 1,757.56 crore as state-owned telecom firm BSNL failed to bill Reliance Jio for 10 years since May 2014 as per their agreement on passive infrastructure sharing, Comptroller and Auditor General of India said on Tuesday.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in a statement said that BSNL incurred a loss of Rs 38.36 crore as it failed to deduct the share of licence fee from the revenue share paid to the Telecom Infrastructure Providers (TIPs).
"BSNL failed to enforce the Master Service Agreement (MSA) with M/s. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) and did not bill for the additional technology used on BSNL's shared passive infrastructure, resulting in loss of Rs 1,757.76 crore and penal interest thereon, between May 2014 to March 2024 to the government exchequer," CAG said.
CAG also noted that there was a short billing of passive infrastructure sharing charge by BSNL.
"Non-adherence to the terms and conditions laid down in the MSA with RJIL by BSNL and non-application of the escalation clause resulted in a loss of revenue of Rs 29 crore (including GST) towards infrastructure sharing charges," the statement said.
