Jamshedpur, Aug. 7 -- The special MP-MLA court in Chaibasa on Wednesday granted conditional bail to Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on a surety of Rs.10,000 in a case related to alleged defamatory comments about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Union home minister Amit Shah during an election rally in the district in 2018, people familiar with the development said. BJP leader and advocate Pratap Katiyar filed a case in the court of the Chaibasa chief judicial magistrate (CJM) on July 9, 2018, against Rahul Gandhi for allegedly saying, "No murderer can become Home Minister in the Congress party, as has happened in the BJP", during an election rally in Chaibasa on March 28, 2018. On Wednesday, Gandhi arrived in Chaibasa from Ranchi by helicopter around 10 am and waited in the Chaibasa Circuit House for about 45 minutes before appearing in the court of judicial magistrate Supriya Rani Tigga around 10:55 am. "Rahul Gandhi-ji appeared before the court as directed by the high court and sought bail. Conditional bail has been granted. We had filed a petition for exemption from personal appearance before the high court, and we are here as per its direction. We will now take the process ahead," Gandhi's lawyer Pranav Daripa said after the hearing on Wednesday. Senior lawyers Pradip Chandra and Dipankar Roy also represented Gandhi in court. Dheeraj Kumar, a high court lawyer involved in the case, said Rahul Gandhi denied making any defamatory comments against any BJP leader or the party when asked by the court to state his position. "Conditional bail was granted to Gandhi with the undertaking that he would cooperate in the trial. The MP-MLA court of Supriya Rani Tigga asked Gandhi to cooperate in the trial and court proceedings," Kumar told HT on Wednesday. Earlier, Katiyar's lawyer opposed Gandhi's bail plea, saying, "It's not befitting for the Leader of Opposition to lie in court when his speech is still available even on the Congress party website."...