Ten days after the Surat court convicted him of defamation case based on his 2019 remark about the surname Modi and sentenced him to two years in imprisonment, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, will file an appeal on Monday seeking a stay of execution.
Gandhi’s lawyer will file a petition with the Surat Sessions Court, and Congress anticipates that the case will be heard on Monday. The party is hoping that the court will stay his conviction, which will allow him to be reinstated as a Lok Sabha MP.
According to sources, Gandhi will appear in court on Monday, accompanied by several senior leaders, including AICC General Secretary in charge of organization K C Venugopal, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh, and Anand Sharma. Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh, Bhupesh Baghel and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, are expected to accompany him.
The appeal, which will be filed by senior lawyer R S Cheema and “supervised, controlled, and advised” by Rajya Sabha MP and senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, will seek a stay of the conviction. The appeal is against Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Verma’s March 23 order, which found Gandhi guilty in the defamation case over his remark about Modi’s surname in 2019.
“We are going to file an appeal on Monday at the Surat Sessions Court against the lower CJM court verdict in a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi,” said Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer in Gujarat, Kirit Panwala. Gandhi will be in court, as will the Congress party’s legal team from Delhi.”
On March 23, after convicting Gandhi, the court suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal and granted bail on a surety of Rs 15,000 on the condition that he post a surety of Rs 15,000.
Gandhi was disqualified from serving in the Lok Sabha the next day. Later, the Lok Sabha House Committee, chaired by BJP MP C R Patil, served him with a notice to vacate the 12, Tughlaq Lane bungalow.
Gandhi was charged in connection with his remark, “Why do all thieves have the name, Modi?” On April 13, 2019, he made the remark at an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka. His conviction and subsequent disqualification sparked a political firestorm, with the Congress and BJP attacking each other, the entire Opposition protesting, and Parliament witnessing stormy scenes.
