Congress workers in Coimbatore hold protests against Gujarat HC rejecting Rahul Gandhi's plea

Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) [India] July 8 : Congress workers in Coimbatore held a protest after Gujarat High Court on Friday rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the 'Modi Surname' defamation case.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Congress workers also held a protest in Bengaluru, against the Gujarat High Court verdict on the defamation case against Rahul Gandhi.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivkumar hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and termed it as a "big conspiracy". Gujarat High Court on Friday upheld Sessions Court's order denying stay on the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case in the 'Modi surname' remark.

"This is a big conspiracy of BJP...BJP with its party cadre has filed a complaint and a verdict has come on it, such a verdict has never come...nobody can stop the Gandhi family and Rahul Gandhi," DK Shivkumar said.

At a rally in Karnataka's Kolar in April 2019, Rahul Gandhi, in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?". Purnesh Modi had filed a complaint against Rahul Gandhi taking offence at this remark on the surname in a Surat court.

The court dismissed Rahul Gandhi's plea and noted that at least 10 criminal cases were pending against him and even after the present case, some more cases have been filed against him. One such case has been filed by the grandson of Veer Savarkar, the court said.

Earlier in May this year, Gujarat HC reserved its order on Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the 2019 'Modi surname' defamation case. Rahul Gandhi had moved the Gujarat High Court on April 25 challenging the Surat sessions court order which declined to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case.

The Surat sessions court had on April 20 rejected Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the criminal defamation case. In his judgement, Additional Sessions Judge Robin P Mogera cited Rahul Gandhi's stature as an MP and former chief of the country's second-largest political party and said he should have been more careful.

He cited prima facie evidence and observations of the trial court and said it transpires that Gandhi made certain derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi apart from comparing people with the same surname with thieves.

Following his conviction by a lower court in the criminal defamation case, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as Lok Sabha MP. He had been elected to Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala. The lower court sentenced the Congress leader to two years in jail on March 23 under sections 499 and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

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