BHIWANDI: A Bhiwandi magistrate on Monday exempted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from personal appearance in a defamation case filed against him by an RSS leader.

When the matter came, Gandhi’s lawyer sought an exemption from appearance for four weeks. “Gandhi is on leave even from Parliament at the moment. He has been on leave since February even before the Bombay high court dismissed his plea to quash the case,’’ said his counsel Prasad Dhakephalkar. “He has the highest regard for the judiciary and submits to this court’s jurisdiction,’’ he added.

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Gandhi has not yet decided whether to appeal the HC order, said Dhakephalkar. In his short application for time, Gandhi said he would take a call regarding an appeal “after he returns from the leave’’. Magistrate D P Kale sought an undertaking from the Congress vice-president’s local lawyer Narayan Iyer about his appearance on the next date and adjourned the matter to May 8. Iyer, who also said that the MP “is on leave’’ and will furnish a bond when he appears, gave a written undertaking that he would appear on the next date.

The HC had last month dismissed Gandhi’s plea to quash the defamation case against him by RSS activist Rajesh Kunte. Kunte said RSS is a “Sangathna of Hindus, far from politics’’ and had alleged that Gandhi during an election rally in Bhiwandi last March “obliquely hinted that an RSS worker killed Mahatma Gandhi’’.

Three weeks, after Gandhi’s speech, Kunte sought Gandhi’s criminal prosecution under section 500 of the Indian Penal Code for the “false and baseless allegation intended to harm the reputation of RSS’’.

Kunte’s lawyer opposed Gandhi’s exemption plea and said “special treatment” cannot be shown to him. But Dhakephalkar argued that “There cannot be reverse discrimination against him either.’’ “The provision that a trial should be held in the presence of an accused is for the benefit of the accused and is applicable to every accused. An accused is entitled to seek exemption. It should not be the other way around too, that just because he is Rahul Gandhi that he will not get the benefit.’’

The HC had said all contentions raised by Gandhi about the case being false and motivated were left open to be argued before the magistrate

A magistrate last year summoned Gandhi to his court on October 7 but that day Gandhi was exempted and later in January the HC gave him an exemption.

Gandhi had moved the HC last December saying there was no case of defamation made out and it must be quashed.

