After the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi in the criminal defamation case against him over his 'Modi surname' remark, the Congress took to Twitter and shared a picture along with a message in Hindi which translates to “I am coming soon, the questions will continue…”
The image in the tweet shows Rahul Gandhi, in Parliament, holding a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and billionaire Gautam Adani together amid damaging allegations against the latter by the Hindenburg report.
With the photo, Gandhi was attacking the Modi government over his links between the billionaire, claiming that the rise in Adani’s fortunes happened after the BJP came to power in 2014.
“आ रहा हूं... सवाल जारी रहेंगे,” the Congress tweeted on Friday.
The apex court stayed the conviction of Gandhi in the criminal defamation case over the "why all thieves have Modi surname" remark earlier today. With the stay of his conviction, Rahul Gandhi's disqualification as MP also now remains in abeyance.
The court noted that the trial judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years in the case and that it would have attracted disqualification if the sentence was a day lesser.
In April, Rahul Gandhi had also told a sessions court in Surat that his conviction by a magistrate’s court in the 2019 defamation case was erroneous, patently perverse, and he was sentenced in a manner so as to attract disqualification as a Member of Parliament.
He said that he was treated harshly by the trial court, which was “overwhelmingly influenced” by his status as an MP.
The SC said today that there was no doubt that the utterances by the petitioner were not in good taste “and the petitioner ought to have been more careful in making speeches”.
It said, “the ramifications of disqualification not just affect the right of the individual but also the electorate.”
This is the last chance for Rahul Gandhi to get acquittal in order to attend the Parliament and contest elections, argued his lawyer in the court, adding that the High Court had reserved its judgement for 66 days, and due conviction in the case, Gandhi has already lost two Parliament sessions.
An SC Bench comprising of justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar heard Rahul Gandhi’s plea for a stay on his conviction.
