Surat: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi might be in Gujarat’s Surat metropolis on Monday to file an enchantment earlier than a periods courtroom in opposition to his conviction in a legal defamation case, his lawyer mentioned on Sunday. Gandhi might be current within the periods courtroom to file the plea difficult a metropolitan courtroom’s order which sentenced him to 2 years in jail, social gathering sources mentioned.
“Rahul Gandhi will reach the sessions court in Surat to file an appeal at around 3 pm,” his lawyer Kirit Panwala mentioned.
Senior Congress leaders may even be in Surat when Gandhi arrives on Monday afternoon, social gathering sources mentioned.
The courtroom of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma right here had on March 23 convicted Gandhi and sentenced him to 2 years in jail in a 2019 legal defamation case filed in opposition to him over his “Modi surname’ remarks.
It had held 52-year-old Gandhi responsible beneath Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500.
The courtroom had additionally granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to enchantment in a better courtroom.
Gandhi was current within the courtroom when it had pronounced the decision within the case.
The former Congress chief was on March 24 disqualified from the Lok Sabha following his conviction by the Surat courtroom within the case.
Following his disqualification, Gandhi wouldn’t be capable of contest elections for eight years until a better courtroom stays his conviction and sentence.
The case was filed in opposition to Gandhi on a grievance by Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi for the Congress chief’s alleged remarks ?How come all thieves have Modi because the widespread surname??
Gandhi, who had served as an MP from Wayanad in Kerala, made the remarks whereas addressing a rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019 in the course of the Lok Sabha elections marketing campaign.
The sentence of two years invited his disqualification from the membership of Parliament beneath provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The RP Act holds that an MP or a member of legislative Assembly (MLA) convicted for any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not lower than two years shall be disqualified from the date of conviction.
Gandhi had campaigned for the Congress earlier than the Gujarat Assembly polls held in December 2022. His social gathering gained simply 17 out of the overall 182 seats, its worst ballot efficiency because the formation of the state in 1960.
In his grievance, BJP MLA Purnesh Modi had alleged that Gandhi, whereas addressing the ballot rally in 2019, defamed your entire Modi neighborhood by purportedly saying, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname.”
Purnesh Modi was a minister within the first tenure of the Bhupendra Patel authorities. The ruling social gathering legislator was re-elected from the Surat West Assembly seat within the elections held in December final yr.
