Rahul Gandhi moves Gujarat HC for stay on defamation conviction

Ahmedabad: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday filed an appeal in the Gujarat High Court, seeking a stay on his conviction by a magistrate’s court in a criminal defamation case.

The appeal will be heard by a single-judge bench in due course. On April 20, a sessions court in Surat dismissed Gandhi’s plea for the suspension of his conviction.

Gandhi, now disqualified as a parliamentarian, was convicted by a magistrate’s court on March 23 for his controversial remark, “All thieves have Modi surname,” made during a political campaign in Karnataka’s Kolar in 2019. Former BJP MLA Purnesh Modi claimed that Gandhi’s statement humiliated and defamed persons with the Modi surname.

The magistrate court accepted Modi’s contention that Gandhi intentionally insulted people with the ‘Modi’ surname. The sessions judge refused to stay the conviction, leading to Gandhi’s present plea before the High Court.