Allahabad court rejects gunman Vaidika Singh’s plea against Smriti Irani

The court stated that Smriti Israeli did not intend to defame the petitioner.

Lucknow:

The Allahabad High Court has dismissed international shooter Vartika Singh’s plea challenging the MP/MLA court’s order dismissing her appeal against Union Minister Smriti I Defamation complaint filed by Rani (Smriti Israeli).

Replying to a reporter’s question, the Lucknow bench of the high court said it was not a defamation of the petitioner if it was said she was associated with the Congress party or the “Gandhi family”.

Bench Faiz Alam Khan passed the verdict on March 5, which was uploaded on Monday.

Vartika Singh has filed a case in Sultanpur MP/MLA court accusing the Iranian lady of defamation. The special court dismissed the case on October 21, 2022.

The petitioner challenged the order of the MP/MLA court in the High Court.

Ms Singh’s allegation is that when reporters asked Irani about the allegations leveled by the petitioner against her personal secretary, Ms Irani described the petitioner as a “pawn” of the Congress and said she had direct links to the Gandhi family.

Quoting Irani’s entire conversation with the reporter, the high court said that before making the statement in question, Ms. Irani talked about other things, during which she did not even mention the name of the petitioner.

When asked about the petitioner, Ms Irani said the petitioner had connections to Congress and had a criminal record, the court said. The court held that a criminal case had been registered against the petitioner.

The judge said that if the court looked at Ms Irani’s statement, she was criticizing a political party and she did not intend to defame the petitioner.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)