Rahul Gandhi intends to request a stay On Conviction In Defamation Case

Guwahati: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is prepared to appeal his conviction in the criminal defamation case against him stemming from his statements about the surname “Modi” in 2019. This comes 10 days after a Surat court found Gandhi guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison.

The sessions court in Surat will hear a motion from Rahul Gandhi’s solicitor today and Congress anticipates that the court will hear the case quickly. The party is holding out hope that the court would halt his conviction, allowing his exclusion from the Lok Sabha to be lifted.

According to reports, Rahul Gandhi will be in the courtroom today along with a number of prominent Congressmen, including Digvijaya Singh, Anand Sharma, Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, and AICC general secretary in charge of organisation, K. C. Venugopal. Rahul Gandhi is reportedly set to go with the chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh, Bhupesh Baghel and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Senior attorney R S Cheema has been “supervised, controlled and advised” by Rajya Sabha MP and senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi in the appeal that seeks to block the chief judicial magistrate’s March 23 decision convicting Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case involving his remarks on the “Modi” surname in 2019. The appeal was also “supervised, controlled and advised” by senior attorney Abhishek Singhvi.

Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer in Gujarat, Kirit Panwala said, “We are going to file the appeal on Monday at the Surat Sessions court against the lower CJM court verdict in a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi will be present in the court and the legal team of Congress party from Delhi too will be present.”

It should be mentioned that on March 23, the court found Rahul Gandhi guilty but stayed his sentence for 30 days so he could file an appeal. Further, the court granted him bail with a Rs 15,000 surety.

A day after his conviction, Rahul Gandhi was nonetheless stripped of his right to serve in the Lok Parliament. Gandhi afterwards received a notice from the Lok Sabha House Committee, which is headed by BJP MP C R Patil, requesting his departure from the residence at 12 Tughlaq Lane.

In the complaint against Rahul Gandhi, he was accused of saying, “Why do all thieves have the name Modi?” on April 13, 2019, at a rally in the Karnataka town of Kolar, which was getting ready for elections.