India
oi-Prakash KL
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has moved the Gujarat High Court seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.
The appeal was filed before the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday evening, Tarannum Cheema, legal counsel of Rahul Gandhi, has confirmed the development. The matter will be heard by a single-judge bench soon.
His petition challenged Surat Sessions Court’s recent order rejecting his application for a stay on his conviction. Additional sessions judge RP Mogera had rejected Gandhi’s application filed for relief pending his appeal against a lower court’s order sentencing him to two years in jail in the case.
On April 3, Gandhi filed an appeal in the sessions court against the lower court’s order and a stay on conviction could have reinstated him as the Member of Parliament.
Last month, the Surat court sentenced Gandhi to two years in jail in the defamation case filed on the basis of a complaint by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi for the Congress leader’s remark “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?” while delivering a speech in 2019.
“The accused had taken the reference of the surname of the current Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, to satisfy his political greed and insulted and defamed 13 crore people living in the whole of India having the surname ‘Modi’,” Bar and Bench quoted the judge as saying.
As a result, he was disqualified from Lok Sabha.
Meanwhile, the former Lok Sabha MP vacated his official bungalow on Sunday after living there for 19 years. “People of Hindustan gave me this house for 19 years, I want to thank them. It’s the price for speaking the truth. I am ready to pay any price for speaking the truth. Whatever the price is, I’ll pay it,” PTI quoted him as saying.
He has now shifted to his mother and former Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s house at 10, Janpath Road.
With inputs from agencies
