India, Sept. 9 -- The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to quash a defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his alleged remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including calling him "commander in-thief". The court dismissed Gandhi's plea challenging a 2019 Girgaon magistrate court order that had initiated proceedings against him.

A single bench of Justice NR Borkar rejected Gandhi's argument that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was not an identifiable body and therefore the remarks could not form the basis of a defamation case involving its members.

"Being a registered national political party, the BJP is definitely an identifiable body. On prima facie reading of the statement, describing the PM, who is a memb...