Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 13: The Surat additional sessions judge RP Mogera has reserved his order till April 20 on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s plea for a stay in his conviction in the “Modi surname” defamation case after his lawyer argued that the trial was “not fair” and there was no need for the maximum punishment.
After hearing arguments from both sides, additional sessions judge R. P. Mogera said he would pronounce the order on April 20.
Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer on Thursday argued that the trial in the defamation case over the Congress leader’s “Modi surname” remark was “not fair” and there was no need for maximum punishment in the case. A metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat on March 23 sentenced Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail after holding him guilty for his remark “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname”, made during an election rally on April 13, 2019, in Kolar in Karnataka.
The BJP Gujarat MLA and complainant in the case, Purnesh Modi, in his reply filed earlier in the same court, had opposed Gandhi’s plea for a stay on conviction saying the Congress leader was a “repetitive offender” who is in the habit of making defamatory statements.
Arguing for Gandhi, senior advocate R. S. Cheema told the judge that the trial was not “fair.” The judgement by the magistrate was “strange” because the trial court judge “made a hotchpotch of all the evidence on record,” Cheema said.
“It was not a fair trial. The entire case was based on electronic evidence, wherein I made a speech during elections and a person sitting 100 km away filed a complaint after watching that in the news…There was no need for maximum punishment in this case,” argued Cheema on behalf of Gandhi. He also said Rahul Gandhi’s unconditional apology to the Supreme Court in the Rafale contempt case was wrongly attached with this case by the complainant.
Rahul Gandhi has filed the appeal before Judge Mogera against the March 23 verdict. He has also prayed for a stay on the conviction in the meantime. In his appeal, Gandhi has termed his conviction as “erroneous” and “patently perverse.”
Arguing against Gandhi’s plea for a stay on conviction, Purnesh Modi’s lawyer Harshit Toliya said his client felt offended because Gandhi had tried to defame all people with Modi surname through his remarks. “He (Gandhi) was the president of the second largest party at the time of making the speech. His speech made a huge impact on the people of India and he also tried to sensationalise his speech,” said Toliya.
“In his speech, Rahul Gandhi spoke about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But he didn’t stop there and went beyond it. He then said “Saare choron ke naam Modi hi kyu hai? Dhoondho aur bhi Modi milenge (Why are all thieves have Modi surname? If you search, you will find more such Modis). My client was hurt by this part of the speech and thus the complaint,” Toliya added.
He informed the court that Gandhi had refused to apologise for his remarks. Toliya said Gandhi was facing similar defamation cases in the country and he is making such defamatory statements despite tendering an unconditional apology in the Supreme Court in the past (in the Rafale case).