Prateek Tanmay
3 min readBhopalUpdated: Jun 25, 2026 05:37 PM IST
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed regret before the Madhya Pradesh High Court over remarks he made during the 2018 Assembly election campaign that led to a criminal defamation case filed by Kartikeya Singh Chouhan, son of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
During the hearing of Gandhi’s petition challenging the criminal proceedings against him, his counsel informed the Jabalpur Bench of the High Court that the Congress leader stood by a public clarification issued a day after the speech and regretted the erroneous reference to Kartikeya Singh Chouhan.
According to submissions made on Gandhi’s behalf, the allegedly defamatory statement was made at an election rally in Jhabua on October 29, 2018, while referring to the Panama Papers controversy. His counsel told the court that Gandhi realised the following day that Kartikeya Singh Chouhan’s name had been mentioned by mistake and publicly clarified on October 30, 2018, that he had intended to refer to the son of the then Chhattisgarh chief minister, and not Kartikeya Singh Chouhan or his father, the then Madhya Pradesh chief minister.
Gandhi’s lawyer further submitted that the Congress leader continued to stand by that clarification and had expressed regret over the error. In view of the clarification and expression of regret, Gandhi requested the High Court to bring the criminal proceedings pending before the Special MP/MLA Court in Bhopal to an end.
The criminal defamation case stems from remarks made by Gandhi during the 2018 Assembly election campaign, when he alleged that Kartikeya Singh Chouhan’s name figured in the Panama Papers leak. Kartikeya Singh denied the allegation, saying neither he nor his family had any connection with the offshore financial documents, and subsequently filed a complaint under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, alleging that the statement had damaged his reputation.
The Special MP/MLA Court in Bhopal took cognisance of the complaint in December 2024 and summoned Rahul Gandhi to face trial. Challenging that order, Gandhi moved the High Court seeking to quash the proceedings.
Appearing for Kartikeya Singh Chouhan, advocate Sankalp Kochhar said, “We argued in court that Gandhi’s regret be part of the order and the application be then disposed off.”
