Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is all set to file an appeal on Monday seeking a stay on his conviction in the criminal defamation case against him over his 2019 remarks on ‘Modi’ surname, 10 days after a Surat court convicted and sentenced him to two years in prison.
Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer will move the sessions court in Surat today and Congress expects the court to take up the matter urgently. The party is harboring hopes that the court will stay his conviction paving the way for revocation of his disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP.
According to reports, Rahul Gandhi will be present in the court today along with several senior Congress leaders including AICC general secretary in charge of organization, K C Venugopal, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh and Anand Sharma. Moreover, Bhupesh Baghel and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh are also likely to accompany Rahul Gandhi.
The appeal seeking a stay on the March 23 order by chief judicial magistrate H H Verma convicting Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case against his comments on ‘Modi’ surname in 2019, has been “supervised, controlled and advised” by Rajya Sabha MP and senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi and will be filed by senior lawyer R S Cheema.
Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer in Gujarat, Kirit Panwala said, “We are going to file the appeal on Monday at the Surat Sessions court against the lower CJM court verdict in a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi will be present in the court and the legal team of Congress party from Delhi too will be present.”
It may be noted that on March 23, the court while convicting Rahul Gandhi, suspended the sentence for 30 days in order to allow him to appeal and approved bail on a surety of Rs 15,000.
However, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha, a day after his conviction. Later on, the House Committee of the Lok Sabha chaired by BJP MP C R Patil issued a notice to Gandhi asking him to vacate the 12, Tughlaq Lane bungalow.
The case against Rahul Gandhi was over his remark “Why do all thieves have the name Modi?” which he made on April 13, 2019 during a rally in poll-bound Karnataka’s Kolar.
