India's Rahul Gandhi cleared over sex smear

An Indian court on Monday fined a former lawmaker more than ê100,000 for falsely accusing rising political star Rahul Gandhi of rape.

The High Court in the northern city of Lucknow ordered Kishore Samrite to pay five million rupees for smearing 40-year-old Gandhi, widely seen as a prime minister-in-waiting.

Samrite had accused Gandhi, the latest member of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty to be tipped for high office, and five of his friends of gang raping 24-year-old Sukanya Singh during a December 2006 trip to his home constituency of Amethi.

Samrite said he read about the alleged attack on an unnamed website and tried to contact the supposed victim, but turned to the courts after failing to track her down. At no point has Singh filed a complaint.

"The court also considers it necessary that an inquiry is carried out by an independent agency to find out if there was a political design behind the move," judges Uma Nath Singh and Satish Chandra said in their ruling.

Samrite is a former legislator of regional opposition Samajwadi (Socialist) Party in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and describes himself as a social activist.

Singh appeared in the court and said she had not been attacked by Gandhi, who has sought to establish himself as a champion of the poor by sleeping in the houses of low-caste Hindus.

Two million rupees should be given to Gandhi, state prosecutor Devendra Upadhaya told AFP, adding that Singh, a daughter of a Congress activist, would recieve 2.5 million rupees. The remainder will go to the police.

Gandhi is the great grandson of India's independence prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and son of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, who currently heads the ruling Congress party.