Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, April 20: A Surat court on Thursday denied Rahul Gandhi’s request for a stay of the conviction in the criminal defamation case involving the remark about the “Modi surname” from 2019.
The former Wayanad MP must now file an appeal against the Surat court’s decision either in the Gujarat High Court or Supreme Court.
The Congress leader was granted bail earlier on April 3 by the Surat Sessions Court after he had appealed his conviction in the matter.
The court also issued notices to the state government and the complainant Purnesh Modi regarding the Congress leader’s request for a stay of his conviction along with granting bail to the former MP. After hearing from all parties, it reserved the order for April 20.
In a lawsuit brought by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Purnesh Modi, a lower court in Surat sentenced Rahul Gandhi, a Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad, to two years in prison on March 23 for violating sections 499 and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This resulted in Gandhi’s disqualification as an MP.
The lawsuit concerned a comment Rahul Gandhi made while speaking at a campaign event in advance of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and using the surname “Modi.”
In April 2019, Rahul took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Kolar, Karnataka and said “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”.
As a result of his conviction, Rahul lost his right to serve as an MP on March 24, as per a Supreme Court ruling in 2013. Any MP or MLA is automatically disqualified under the judgement if they are found guilty and given a term of two years or more.
