Surat Court Grants Bail To Rahul Gandhi
SURAT/ NEW DELHI : Rahul Gandhi on Monday, accompanied by several Congress leader, filed an appeal in a Surat court against his conviction in the 2019 defamation case. Earlier today, the disqualified Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi appeared in a Surat court today to challenge his conviction and two-year prison sentence in a 2019 defamation case.
The plea to set aside the magistrate’s order was in a sessions court. The court said it will hear his appeal on April 13. The bail he has been granted was extended till that date.
He was accompanied by several Congress leaders including his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, to file an appeal in a sessions court against his conviction in the ‘Modi surname’ remark case. The complainant, Punesh Modi, who shares the prime minister’s surname, accused Gandhi of defamation over a 2019 speech in Karnataka’s Kolar in which he asked, “Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?” The lower court in Surat convicted Gandhi and sentenced him to two years in jail.
According to legal experts, a stay on Gandhi’s conviction in the case would be sufficient to restore his Lok Sabha membership. Speaking to IANS, senior advocate Sanjay Hedge said according to the Supreme Court judgment in the Lily Thomas case, a stay on the conviction is sufficient and if the sessions court stays Rahul’s conviction, then the Lok Sabha secretariat could restore Gandhi’s membership. Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra said if the sessions court stays his conviction in the defamation case, it will pave the way for the restoration of his Lok Sabha membership. He stressed that a stay on conviction is a must.
Rahul on Monday said the truth was his weapon and support in the “fight to save democracy”, shortly after a sessions court in Surat admitted his plea against conviction in the 2019 criminal defamation case that saw him expelled from the Parliament. The court extended his bail till April 13, the next date of hearing on the plea. “This is a fight to save democracy, against ‘Mitrakal’. In this struggle, truth is my weapon, and truth is my support!” Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, taking a dig at the ruling BJP which the Congress party labels as a government ‘only benefitting the rich’.
(Warriors do not get distracted, do not lose patience for a moment, they embrace the obstacles, make a way through thorns.)” Priyanka tweeted. Rahul has challenged his conviction in an appellate court, hoping to overturn a judgement that resulted in his expulsion from parliament. His legal team filed appeal before he reached the court and sought bail. The court granted interim bail to Rahul and listed the matter for the next hearing on April 13.Several senior Congress leaders including K.C. Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh and Anand Sharma accompanied Gandhi to the court.
According to NDTV, Gandhi also asked for an interim stay on the conviction, which would restore his Lok Sabha membership. Gandhi was sentenced to two years imprisonment by the Surjart CJM court, which also gave him a period of 30 days to move a higher court against the order.
BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had lodged a complaint against Gandhi after he had allegedly asked in a rally in Kolar of Karnataka in 2019, “Why do all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have ‘Modi’ in their names?” Gujarat Police had FIR filed an under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (dealing with defamation).
In his statement before the Surat’s chief judicial magistrate (CJM) A.N .Dave in 2021, Gandhi had denied making any defamatory remarks.A day after his two-year sentence was announced, Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha. Meanwhile on Friday, a Patna court had asked Gandhi to appear before it on April 12 in a 2019 defamation case filed by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi pertaining to the same comments. Gandhi had been granted bail in this defamation case on July 6, 2019.
On a separate note, another defamation case has been filed against Gandhi by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker at a court in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar. The complainant, Kamal Bhadauria, alleged that a comment made by Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra in January is defamatory towards RSS, Bar and Bench reported. Gandhi had referred to RSS workers as “Kauravas of the twenty-first century”.
Bureau Report with media Inputs).
