LUCKNOW: A Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Friday directed the Uttar Pradesh police to register an FIR against Cong MP and leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, for allegedly concealing his British citizenship as he had claimed himself to be a UK citizen while getting a company incorporated in England in 2003.The bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi permitted the state government to hand over the probe to any central agency. In its order, the bench said that from a bare perusal of the allegations, prima-facie cognizable offences were made out against Rahul and hence the allegations required investigation. The order came after the deputy solicitor general submitted relevant documents on the court’s direction.The petitioner, Karnataka BJP Worker Vignesh Shishir, alleged that Rahul is a UK citizen and had incorporated a company named M/S Backops Ltd., which was registered in August 2003. It was further submitted that Rahul categorically admitted and voluntarily declared his nationality as British, providing a Director Identification ID and London and Hampshire addresses. Passing the order, the bench set aside the special MP/MLA court Lucknow order of Jan 28, 2025 whereby it had refused to order the registration of an FIR against Rahul. The bench said that the special court should have looked into whether the allegations prima facie made out any cognizable offences but failed to consider it. Earlier, deputy solicitor general of India , SB Pandey produced the central government’s records in the court relating to Rahul’s citizenship controversy. The government advocate VK Singh also consented on behalf of the UP government that the allegations prima- facie made out cognizable offences. After a detailed hearing, the bench found that the material on record showed that Rahul had committed cognizable offences in by having dual citizenship and these allegations required to be probed. In his petition, Shishir claimed that Rahul had submitted the company’s annual returns in Oct 2005 and Oct 2006, listing his nationality as British. Thereafter, the company was dissolved by filing a dissolution application in Feb 2009. He has sought registration of FIR against Rahul under BNS, the Official Secrets Act, the Foreigners Act, and the Passport Act. The petitioner had initially filed the complaint before the special MP/MLA Court, Rae Bareli but on Shishir’s own petition, the Lucknow bench of the HC transferred the said criminal complaint case from Rae Bareli to Lucknow on Dec 17, 2025. Lucknow’s MP/MLA court rejected the plea on Jan 28, 2026, against which the petitioner had moved the HC. According to the petitioner, the material placed before the court includes records suggesting that Rahul may have been listed as a voter in the United Kingdom and participated in electoral processes there.
