Rahul Gandhi Convicted In Defamation Case And Gets 2-Year Sentence
Update: 2023-03-23 11:57 IST
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was convicted on Thursday in a criminal defamation case involving his claimed remark made during the 2019 Lok Sabha election and given a 2-year prison sentence by a Surat court. At a gathering in Kolar, Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi questioned why "all thieves have Modi as the common surname."
As the judgement was read aloud in court, Rahul Gandhi was there. As the court issued the judgement, the Wayanad MP also granted bail after posting a 10,000 bail bond. He will not be instantly disqualified since he is a sitting member of parliament, and he has 30 days to appeal against the ruling.
Purnesh Modi, a minister in Gujarat, filed the lawsuit against Rahul Gandhi. After the Gujarat high court lifted the temporary halt it had placed on the proceedings in March 2022 in response to the complainant's request for Rahul Gandhi to personally participate in the case. The final arguments in the case began in February 2023. Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Criminal Code were used to prosecute Rahul Gandhi.
According to Rahul Gandhi's lawyer, the proceedings were defective from the start because Section 202 of the CrPC's legal procedure was not followed. Additionally, Rahul Gandhi's attorney contended that Narendra Modi ought to have filed the complaint because Purnesh Modi was not the intended audience for Rahul Gandhi's speech.