A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur on Monday acquitted Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, in a defamation case over his remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2018.In its verdict, delivered nearly eight years after the case was filed, the court held that the BJP leader who lodged the complaint was not an aggrieved person and that Gandhi’s remarks were not defamatory.AdvertisementEarlier this month, during a protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Gandhi said, “Forty-five FIRs have been registered against me. I want 100 FIRs to be registered against me. Every FIR is like a medal for me,” he said after a case was registered against him over a protest march to the Election Commission office in Delhi.Gandhi faces several defamation cases across the country, many filed by members of the BJP and the RSS. Here is a look at some of the prominent cases against him.Also Read | Rahul Gandhi’s stand-on-barricade moment came with a Led Zeppelin trackModi surname caseAdvertisementOn March 23, 2023, a court in Gujarat’s Surat convicted Gandhi in a criminal defamation case over his remarks about the Modi surname during a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.Gandhi had allegedly asked, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Varma convicted him under Sections 499 and 500 of the IPC and sentenced him to two years in jail.Under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, read with the Supreme Court’s 2013 judgment in Lily Thomas v Union of India, a legislator sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more is disqualified from membership of the House. The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification disqualifying Gandhi on March 24, 2023.The Supreme Court subsequently stayed his conviction, observing that the trial court had not adequately explained why the maximum sentence of two years was warranted. Subsequently, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification restoring his membership on August 7, 2023.Also Read | Rahul, Priyanka Gandhi detained after hours-long anti-CEC protest, released laterPune case over Savarkar remarksSatyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of V D Savarkar, filed a criminal defamation complaint against Gandhi before a magistrate’s court in Pune on April 12, 2023.The complaint alleged that Gandhi had made false and malicious statements about Savarkar during a visit to the United Kingdom in March that year.According to Satyaki, Gandhi told an event in London that Savarkar had written in a book about an incident in which he and his friends beat up a Muslim man and were pleased about it. Satyaki has maintained that Savarkar never wrote any such book.The case is currently ongoing.Thane case over Savarkar remarksIn November 2022, Vandana Dongre, a worker of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, lodged a defamation complaint against Gandhi at the Thane Nagar police station over his alleged remarks about Savarkar.The complaint referred to Gandhi’s alleged statement that Savarkar had submitted mercy petitions to the British out of fear, thereby betraying leaders of the freedom movement, including Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel.The case is currently ongoing.Haridwar defamation complaintIn March 2023, days after Gandhi’s conviction in the Modi surname case, a complaint was filed against him before the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Haridwar over his alleged remarks describing the RSS as “21st century Kauravas”.The remarks were allegedly made during Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra at Kurukshetra. The complainant, Kamal Bhadoria, claims to be an RSS volunteer.The case is currently ongoing.Ranchi case over Modi surname remarksIn 2019, advocate Pradip Modi filed a criminal defamation complaint against Gandhi before a chief judicial magistrate’s court in Ranchi over the Congress leader’s remarks about the Modi surname.Gandhi is facing trial in the case.Sushil Modi’s defamation suit in PatnaDays after Gandhi made the Modi surname remarks at a rally on April 13, 2019, late BJP leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi filed a criminal defamation complaint against him before the Patna Sadar chief judicial magistrate’s court.The case is being heard by a special MP/MLA court and has reached the stage of examination of the accused.Ahmedabad case over Amit Shah remarksIn May 2019, BJP member Krishnavadan Brahmbhatt filed a criminal defamation complaint against Gandhi before a magistrate’s court in Ahmedabad.The complaint alleged that Gandhi had referred to Amit Shah, then BJP president, as a “murder accused” during a rally in Jabalpur on April 23, 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.The trial has been stayed by the Gujarat High Court.Ahmedabad case over demonetisation remarksIn April 2019, the Ahmedabad District Co-operative (ADC) Bank and its chairman, Ajay Patel, filed a criminal defamation complaint against Gandhi over his allegations linking Amit Shah to money laundering during the 2016 demonetisation exercise. Shah was a director of the bank at the time.Mumbai case over Rafale remarksIn 2018, BJP leader Mahesh Shrishrimal filed a defamation complaint against Gandhi before a magistrate’s court in Girgaon, Mumbai, over his allegations of corruption against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale fighter jet deal.The proceedings have been deferred while Gandhi’s plea seeking quashing of the complaint is pending before the Bombay High Court.Bhiwandi case over RSS and Mahatma Gandhi’s assassinationIn 2014, Rajesh Kunte, a Bhiwandi resident who claims to be an RSS worker, filed a defamation complaint against Gandhi before a court in Bhiwandi, Thane district.The complaint concerned a speech Gandhi allegedly made at an election rally in 2014, in which he said that people associated with the RSS had killed Mahatma Gandhi.Kunte alleged that the statement was intended to damage the RSS’s reputation.The case is currently ongoing.Mumbai case over Gauri Lankesh’s murderIn 2018, RSS worker Dhrutiman Joshi filed a criminal defamation complaint against Gandhi and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury before a court in Sewri, Mumbai, over their alleged attempts to link the RSS to journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder.The complaint referred to a statement Gandhi purportedly made after Lankesh was killed on September 5, 2017: “Anybody who speaks against the ideology of the BJP, of the RSS, is pressured, beaten, attacked and even killed.”The case is currently ongoing.Ranchi case over remarks against the BJPIn 2018, BJP worker Navin Jha filed a criminal defamation complaint against Gandhi before a chief judicial magistrate’s court in Ranchi, alleging that the Congress leader had made derogatory remarks about the BJP at an internal meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).Gandhi subsequently moved the Jharkhand High Court, seeking the quashing of the criminal proceedings.Guwahati case over monastery visitIn 2016, RSS worker Anjan Kumar Bora filed a criminal defamation complaint against Gandhi before a chief judicial magistrate’s court in Kamrup, Assam.The complaint stemmed from Gandhi’s allegation during a visit to the state in December 2015 that RSS workers had prevented him from entering a monastery in Barpeta. Monastery officials had denied the allegation.Bora accused Gandhi of making false statements to defame the RSS.