Lucknow, Oct. 26 -- The Special MP-MLA court in Sultanpur on Monday acquitted Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP from Rae Bareli, in an eight-year-old defamation case linked to "murder accused" remarks against the then BJP national president Amit Shah, who is now the Union home minister.

In a 49-page judgment, the court held that the complainant Vijay Mishra is neither the person aggrieved under Section 199 of the Criminal Procedure Code nor member of a definite identifiable class and the alleged statement does not cross the higher threshold required for defamation in political discourse.

Special Judge (MP-MLA court) Shubham Verma pronounced the judgment in the presence of Rahul Gandhi, who had reached S...