Surat court rejects Rahul Gandhi’s plea for stay on conviction in defamation case

On Thursday, a Surat court denied Rahul Gandhi’s request for a stay of execution 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 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 sent letters 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 on 20 April.

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 23 March for violating sections 499 and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This resulted in Gandhi’s disqualification.

The case related to a remark Rahul Gandhi made using the surname ‘Modi’ while addressing a campaign event ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

At a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar in April 2019, Rahul, in a taunt at Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”

Succeeding his statement, Rahul was disqualified as an MP on 24 March, as per a Supreme Court ruling in 2013. Under the ruling, any MP or MLA is inevitably disqualified if convicted and sentenced to two years or more.