AHMEDABAD: The Congress party and its senior leader Rahul Gandhi have suffered a major setback.
A court in Surat district of Gujarat has rejected a plea submitted by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking stay on conviction in defamation case.
Rahul Gandhi was convicted and sentenced to 2-year jail term by a court in Gujarat on March 23 in a defamation case.
Rahul Gandhi was convicted by a court in connection with a 2019 speech, in which he linked PM’s last name with two fugitive businessmen.
“How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?” questioned Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 speech.
The complaint was filed by BJP’s Purnesh Modi over the Congress leader’s “Modi surname” remark.
After the plea of Rahul Gandhi was rejected by the court, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the party will “continue to avail all options still available to us under the law”.
Following conviction, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as Lok Sabha MP.
Opposition parties lashed out at the government over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as Lok Sabha MP.
Rahul Gandhi now has the option of moving the Gujarat high court to appeal against the verdict of the sessions court.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla hit out at the Congress party, saying, “Will Congress now call this vendetta too? Will they raise question on courts again? Will they finally junk their arrogance and apologise to the OBC community rather than question the judiciary.”