Ahmedabad: Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has dropped the criminal defamation case against Congress leaders Sukhram Rathva, Shailesh Parmar, and CJ Chavda (now in the BJP), as well as Rathva’s personal assistant, Pravin Parmar, after they unconditionally apologized to Rupani for leveling baseless charges against him. They admitted on record that their accusations were politically motivated and lacked any evidence.

These four individuals, including Chavda, who joined the BJP this year, appeared in court on September 26 and submitted a written unconditional apology.

In February 2022, Sukhram Rathva, Shailesh Parmar, and CJ Chavda held a press conference in Gandhinagar, claiming that the Gujarat government approved a change in the zoning of 111 acres of land owned by Sahara India Home Corporation on the outskirts of Rajkot on May 28, 2021, during Rupani’s tenure as Chief Minister. They alleged that the zoning was shifted from residential to industrial, significantly increasing the land’s value. The Congress leaders accused Rupani of being involved in a ₹500 crore scam, which they claimed led to his removal from the CM position.

Later, Rupani, through his lawyer Ansh Bhardwaj, issued a legal notice to these Congress leaders and Pravin Parmar, demanding a public apology. When they did not respond, Rupani filed a criminal defamation lawsuit against the four in Gandhinagar’s chief judicial magistrate’s court on March 22, 2022.

After repeated summons went unanswered, the court issued arrest warrants for the three Congress leaders and rejected their requests for discharge. They eventually appeared in court on September 26, where they presented an unconditional written apology, acknowledging that they had no evidence to support their allegations and asserting that the claims were politically motivated. Rupani accepted their apology, leading his lawyer to file a petition to close the case.

Rupani explained that he saw no reason to pursue the case after the Congress leaders apologized. “They apologized in open court, stating they had no proof for the allegations made against me. The court asked if I accepted the apology, and since they were sincere, I had no hesitation in accepting it and withdrawing the case,” the former CM said.

“The Congress leaders have apologized through an affidavit in front of the judge, and therefore the case has been dropped as the issue is resolved. It is not important whether someone is in the BJP; the question is that when any allegation is leveled against a public leader, he has to fight and bring the truth to the public. They leveled allegations of corruption, which is why I filed the case, as making such allegations for doing gaining political advantage is not right. Later, CJ Chavda and the son of Sukhrambhai joined the BJP, but that was different,” the CM further stated.

Regarding this, Sukhram Rathwa stated, “We did not pay enough attention to the facts and did not gather all the necessary information to verify whether the allegations were true or false. The press conference was conducted in haste, and we recognize that we made a mistake at that time.”

“You have the laws and the lawyers, and this will take a long time for both parties. We ask for your forgiveness and now accept that we made a mistake by making accusations against someone without sufficient investigation. Following this, Rupani, showing a big heart, withdrew his case on September 26, 2024, in the Gandhinagar court.”  DeshGujarat