Ex-MP Rahul Gandhi, recently disqualified from the parliament by a Gujarat court in a 2019 defamation case and sentenced to a two-year prison will be challenging his conviction in a Surat sessions court tomorrow, sources revealed.
As per an NDTV report, Gandhi in his plea has requested the court to set aside the conviction order against him in the defamation case by the Magistrate. While he was given bail with his sentence suspended for 30 days, allowing him time to appeal the decision, the Lok Sabha secretariat suspended him. The action drew reactions from the opposition leaders who questioned the speed of the decision.
The former Congress president has also asked for an interim stay on the conviction till the matter is disposed of. The case against Rahul Gandhi’s comments from a 2019 rally in Karnataka ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, was filed by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi. Gandhi had remarked saying, "How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?" His dig was at PM Modi over his last name, which he shares with fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi
The report also says that days after his disqualification, Gandhi was served a notice asking him to vacate his official Delhi bungalow. It was termed as a conspiracy move by the Congress aimed to 'silence' Rahul Gandhi’s tough questions in the Parliament on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alleged closeness with industrialist Gautam Adani, accused of "pulling the largest con in corporate history" and corruption by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research.
