Team News Riveting
Surat, April 3
A Surat court on Monday granted bail to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case and paused the two-year sentence handed out to him pending a decision on his appeal.
The sessions court will hear Gandhi’s primary appeal, challenging his conviction and sentencing by a lower court in the case, on April 13, an official said. The former Congress President was convicted by the lower court here and sentenced to prison for two years for a speech delivered in 2019 in which he linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname with two fugitive businessmen. He remarked how the “thieves” shared the same last name.
On March 23, the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Varma had awarded the sentence. The lower court had granted him bail for 30 days to appeal the verdict. A day later, he was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha. He was representing Wayanad constituency in Kerala.
The court of Additional Sessions Judge, R P Mogera said it would hear his plea for suspension of conviction on April 13 after issuing a notice to complainant Purnesh Modi, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and former Gujarat cabinet minister.
The 52-year-old Congress leader reached Surat in the afternoon via a scheduled commercial flight along with sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. He proceeded to the sessions court to appeal against last month’s ruling of a lower court at around 3 pm. Senior Congress leaders including both the Congress Chief Ministers were also present on the occasion.
Senior Advocate R S Cheema is representing Rahul Gandhi in the sessions court.
