NEW DELHI, Apr 25: The former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has appealed in the Gujarat High Court for a stay on the Surat magisterial court’s order for two years’ imprisonment in the “Modi surname” case.
He has moved the High Court after the Surat additional sessions court effused to grant the stay on the lower court’s order. Gandhi had sought a pause on his conviction that would help his reinstatement as an MP.
He was disqualified last month after receiving a two-year jail term – the maximum possible in a criminal defamation case and making the cut to bar him from parliament. In his appeal, he had said the trial court had treated him harshly, overwhelmingly influenced by his status as an MP.
The Surat additional sessions judge Robin Mongera, however, disagreed, saying Gandhi had “failed to demonstrate that by not staying the conviction and denying an opportunity to contest the election, an irreversible and irrevocable damage will be caused to him.”
In the campaign ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi had said, “How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?” The BJP alleged it was an insult to the entire Other Backward Classes and a party leader in Gujarat, Purnesh Modi, had filed the defamation case against him. The Gujarat court which convicted him, had granted him bail and 30 days’ time to file an appeal.
(Manas Dasgupta)
