Supreme Court verdict on Rahul Gandhi appeal:
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, has appealed the Gujarat high court’s decision, and the Supreme Court of India will hear his case today, Friday, August 4. In a defamation action involving his comment about the “Modi surname,” he is asking for a stay of his conviction.
The Gujarat High Court previously declined to stay Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a defamation case involving Modi’s surname remark case, which resulted in the removal of his Lok Sabha membership.
Rahul Gandhi reaffirmed his innocence before the Supreme Court on Wednesday and resisted offering an apology regarding the Modi last name case.
He claimed that he has always insisted that he is innocent of the charges against him, that the conviction is illogical, and that if he had to confess and compound the offense, he would have done so much earlier.
In his affidavit, Gandhi alleged that attempts were being made to ‘arm-twist’ him into offering an apology. A “gross abuse of the judicial process” was forcing an apology, the Congress leader said the supreme court, by “using the criminal process and the consequences under the Representation of Peoples Act.”
Based on a complaint made by Gujarat BJP MLA Purnesh Ishwarbhai Modi, the Congress leader was found guilty in March of this year. Gandhi received a strong scolding from the ejected MP after the latter called him “arrogant” in a reply submitted to the SC on Wednesday.
The temporary relief granted to Congressman Rahul Gandhi from appearing before a local court here in a defamation complaint regarding his alleged remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 was extended by the Bombay High Court on Wednesday till September 26.
Purnesh Modi, a former minister in the Gujarat government, launched the criminal defamation lawsuit against Rahul Gandhi in 2019.
The issue started after Gandhi said, on April 13, 2019, at an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, “how all thieves have Modi as the common surname.” Gandhi was alluding to the two businessmen Lalit and Nirav Modi, who are both wanted in India for ransom.
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