India: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to challenge defamation case conviction on Monday

Rahul Gandhi, a member of India’s opposition Congress party and former MP, will challenge his conviction by the Gujarat court in the criminal defamation case.

It has been learnt that the Gandhi family scion will file an appeal on Monday at the sessions court in Surat city to set aside the magistrate court’s order that found him guilty of maligning people who have Modi surname.

He will be accompanied by senior state leaders and national leaders of the Congress party.

The conviction and two years' jail sentence in the criminal case of defamation had cost Gandhihis membership as a lawmaker in the Lok Sabha (Indian Parliament’s lower house).

If the higher court refuses to revoke the order, Gandhi won’t be allowed to contest elections for the next eight years, and the Lok Sabha seat, which he won from Kerala Wayanad constituency, will see by-polls.

On March 23, the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma convicted Gandhi and sentenced him to two years in jail in the 2019 criminal defamation case.

The case was filed by a BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister, Purnesh Modi, for Gandhi saying, "How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?"

The Congress leader made these remarks while addressing a rally in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, targetting PM Modi over his last name, which he shares with fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

Following his disqualification as a Member of Parliament, Gandhi was served a notice to vacate his official Delhi bungalow, as he was no longer entitled to it.

Congress dubbed the move a ‘conspiracy’ to ‘silence’ Rahul Gandhi as he was asking tough questions in the Parliament on Prime Minister's alleged closeness with industrialist Gautam Adani, whose conglomerate has been accused of "pulling the largest con in corporate history" by US-based short sellerHindenburg Research.

(With inputs from agencies)

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