A special MP-MLA court in Sultanpur on Monday (October 26) has acquitted Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case over his 2018 remark describing the then BJP president Amit Shah as a “murder accused”. The court held that the complainant, BJP’s Sultanpur district vice-president (VP) Vijay Mishra, had failed to establish how the statement affected or harmed his reputation.

An MP-MLA court is a specialised or designated court set up to fast-track criminal trials and legal proceedings involving sitting and former MPs and MLAs.

Mishra had alleged that Gandhi’s comments humiliated him as a BJP worker.…