Rahul Gandhi moves Gujarat HC for stay on conviction in defamation case

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court challenging a lower court decision to dismiss his appeal for a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case related to his comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname, reported Live Law.

The development comes five days after a sessions court in Surat had dismissed Gandhi’s plea saying that as a member of Parliament and the former president of the country’s second-largest political party, he should have been more careful with his words.

On March 23, Gandhi was sentenced to two years imprisonment in the case brought by Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Surat West MLA Purnesh Modi. In a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the 52-year-old leader had asked: “Why all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi in their names?”

Nirav Modi is a fugitive businessman accused in the Punjab National Bank scam while Lalit Modi is former Indian Premier League chief who has been banned for life by the cricket governing body.

The Congress leader was convicted under Sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code. The court, however, had granted him bail and suspended his sentence for 30 days.

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