Observing that “purity in politics” is the need of the hour, the Gujarat High Court on Friday dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.
In a setback to 53-year-old Gandhi, Justice Hemant Prachchhak also noted that representatives of people should be “men of clear antecedent” and that a stay on conviction is not a rule, but an exception resorted to only in rare cases. There was no reasonable ground to stay the conviction, he added. A stay on Gandhi’s conviction would have paved the way for his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP.
Delivering a 125-page verdict, Justice Prachchhak also said Gandhi, a former Congress president, was already facing 10 criminal cases across India, adding the order of the lower court was “just, proper and legal” in handing over a two year jail term to Gandhi for his remarks. The judge maintained it was not an “individual-centric defamation case”, but something which affected a “large section of the society”.
The court also noted Gandhi took Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name in his speech to “add sensation” and with an intention to “affect the result” of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress said it will move the Supreme Court against the verdict and alleged that the government is finding “newer techniques” to throttle his voice as it is rattled by him speaking the truth.
BJP MLA and former minister in Gujarat government Purnesh Modi had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his ‘How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?’ remark made during an election rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.
