A Gujarat court will decide on Thursday whether to grant a stay on conviction in a 2019 defamation case against Rahul Gandhi. He will appear in another hearing related to the case on May 13, but the two are different in nature. Last month, Rahul Gandhi was convicted by a Gujarat court for his statements during the Congress’ election campaign in Kolar in 2019. A Gujarat municipal court sentenced him to two years in prison. The conviction came on the basis of a case filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, wherein he accused Rahul Gandhi of humiliating the entire Modi community with his remarks in Kolar.
In his complaint, Purnesh Modi alleged that Gandhi made a statement asking, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”
Rahul Gandhi was found guilty under Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for intentionally insulting with the intent to cause a disturbance of peace. Consequently, he lost his Lok Sabha membership and was instructed to vacate his government Bungalow. In response, Gandhi wrote a letter to the Lok Sabha secretariat’s deputy secretary, affirming that he will comply with the notice’s provisions.
Unless a higher court overturns his sentence, the Congress leader will be unable to vote for the next eight years. On April 13, Gandhi is scheduled to appear before the Gujarat District and Sessions Court to plead for a stay on the conviction in the case. On May 3, the court will determine whether the charges against him are maintainable.
In the May 3 hearing, the court will decide whether there is enough evidence to charge Rahul Gandhi with defamation.
Rahul Gandhi is fighting a legal battle in Patna as well in a case filed by BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi over the same remarks. An MP/MLA court in Bihar’s Patna on Wednesday asked him to appear before it on April 25. Special Judicial Magistrate Aadi Dev had asked Gandhi to appear before it on April 12.
Rahul Gandhi’s counsel sought another date, stating that the entire team was busy with the Surat case, in which Gandhi was sentenced to two years in prison and disqualified from the Lok Sabha. To this, the judge asked Gandhi’s counsel to ensure his physical appearance before the court on the next date of hearing in the case on April 25.
On Wednesday, while opposing Rahul Gandhi’s plea before the Surat District and Sessions court for a stay of conviction in the case, Purnesh Modi said the Congress leader is a “repetitive offender” who is in the habit of making defamatory statements.
The way Gandhi turned up to file his appeal against the magistrate’s order sentencing him to two years in jail showed “extraordinary arrogance” and “a very dirty display of childish arrogance and an immature act of bringing pressure upon the court,” Modi’s reply said, referring to the Congress’s show of strength outside the court.