Surat Court Rejects Rahul Gandhi's Plea For Stay On Conviction In 'All Thieves Have Modi Surname' Defamation Case

The Surat court rejected Rahul Gandhi's appeal to postpone his conviction in a criminal defamation case, thereby affirming the magistrate's verdict.

On 23 March, a Surat court had sentenced the Congress leader to two years imprisonment, after finding him guilty for his comment made during an election rally in 2019, where he said, "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname."

BJP MLA Purnesh Modi had filed the criminal defamation case against Gandhi for his remarks.

Gandhi was then disqualified from Parliament due to his conviction, after which he appealed the decision and requested a conviction stay until the sessions court reviews his appeal.

However, today, the verdict was announced by Additional Sessions Judge Robin P Mogera, who dismissed the application challenging Gandhi's conviction. Gandhi's legal team had characterised the conviction as "harsh and highly excessive."

Lawyer Ranjeet Cheema, representing Gandhi, criticised the Magistrate's decision, stating that the trial judge “made a hotchpotch of all the evidence on record and the defamatory imputation is neither proved nor intention to defame Modis is proved”.

Advocates Ketan Reshamwala and Harshit Toliya represented Purnesh Modi in court. They claimed that several Congress leaders, including chief ministers and party presidents from different states, had arrived in Surat on the day of conviction to 'pressurise the judiciary.'

“While filing the appeal, Rahul Gandhi and several other Congress leaders had come to Surat, to show off”, they said.

However, Jairam Ramesh, Congress General Secretary, said in a tweet that they will continue to avail all options still available to them under the law.