Ranchi trial court for MP/MLA has issued summons to Congress MP and party candidate from Rae Bareli, Rahul Gandhi, in connection with a criminal defamation suit filed against him for calling former BJP national president and Union home minister Amit Shah “a murder accused”.

Summons was issued on Tuesday based on the complaint filed by BJP supporter Naveen Jha in the Ranchi civil court.

Jharkhand High Court had in February this year dismissed a petition of Rahul to quash ongoing proceedings in a Ranchi trial (lower) court in a criminal defamation suit filed against him for calling Shah “a murder accused”.

A case was filed against the Congress former national president by Jha, alleging that during a Congress Plenary Session at New Delhi on March 18, 2018, Rahul made a speech against the BJP, labelling Shah as a “murder accused”.

“The speech made by Rahul Gandhi has imputed the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership to be liars who are drunk with power and that the Bharatiya Janata Party workers will accept a person accused of murder as the president of Bharatiya Janata Party but people will never accept the same in the Congress party,” the High Court order had said.

A Ranchi-based legal counsel of Rahul said that the complainant after the Ranchi High Court dismissed his petition might have approached the trial court which led to the issue of summons.

The legal counsel said that the summons date is yet to be known but it would be well past June 4 (the counting of votes).