New Delhi
Without 'stay' on the sentence by the Surat court itself, Congress MP and former president of the grand old party, Rahul Gandhi, could have been behind bars. Well, the verdict of the Surat court is never in isolation.
Rahul Gandhi is already out on bail in the famous 'National Herald case' pursued by BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy. In this case, Rahul Gandhi and also his mother Sonia Gandhi were granted bail in December 2015 on a personal bond of Rs 50,000. On Thursday, Dr Swamy claimed the National Herald will come up for a crucial round of hearing in April and that Rahul could be facing much bigger troubles.
There are six other cases in which Rahul Gandhi is out on bail, sources said.
On July 6, 2019, Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by a Patna court in another defamation case related to
the same row as in the Surat court case. This case was filed by a BJP leader for Rahul's comments saying
“all Modis are thieves”. There is a Modi community in Bihar too.
On July 12, 2019, Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by an Ahmedabad court in another defamation case.
The case was filed by the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank after he had alleged that the bank was involved in a scam of swapping bank notes during demonetisation in 2016.
The Guwahati court has also granted him bail in another defamation case filed by the RSS. The bail was granted on a bond of Rs 50,000 in September 2016. The case was filed after Rahul had misled that he was 'prevented' by the RSS from entering the Barpeta Satra in Assam in December 2015.
On July 4, 2019, Rahul was granted bail by a Mumbai court in a defamation case filed by a RSS worker. This case was filed for his remark linking activist Gauri Lankesh’s killing with the “BJP-RSS ideology”. The bail was granted on a surety amount of Rs 15,000.
In November 2016, the Bhiwandi court in Maharashtra had granted bail to the Congress leader in a case filed by another RSS worker. This case is linked to Rahul Gandhi's absurd claims that the RSS had killed Mahatma Gandhi. Even the Supreme Court had slammed him for such ‘collective’ comments, and had ruled that he will have to face trial and prove his point in the court.
The moral of the lesson being Rahul Gandhi has developed a habit of making unfounded allegations against organisations such as RSS and other nationalist leaders and communities.
In relation to the Surat court order, Dr Swamy has said, " I have not seen the entire court order. But hate speech against a community is a serious offence".
He also said, "The Congress party and Rahul Gandhi cannot escape from this; they can only try to buy time".
ends
Rahul Gandhi served with two years imprisonment on a Defamation Case
A Surat court on Thursday, March 23, held Congress MP Rahul Gandhi guilty in a 2019 defamation case and sentenced him to two years imprisonment. The court, however, approved his bail on a surety of Rs 15,000 and stayed the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal.
"This is new India. If you raise your voice against injustice, then ED-CBI, Police, FIR will be unleashed on you. Rahul Gandhi too is getting punished for speaking the truth and raising his voice against the dictator. The law of the country gives an opportunity to Rahul Gandhi to appeal and he will exercise the right," Jairam Ramesh said adding, "We are not afraid."
BJP MLA Purnesh Modi had lodged a complaint against Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in2019 on the ‘Modi’ surname wherein he repeatedly asked, “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. How come they all have Modi as common surname? How come all the thieves have Modi as common surname?” on April 13, 2019, at a rally in Kolar. Furthermore, he added, “The name Modi symbolises the collusion between India’s biggest crony capitalist and the Prime Minister of India”.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma, however, granted Rahul Gandhi bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.
Rahul Gandhi earlier plead not guilty in front of the Surat court in October 2019. As per the case Rahul was charged under sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC. However, the Surat District Court sentenced Rahul Gandhi to two years imprisonment u/s 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for his remarks against the Modi surname.
Will Rahul Gandhi lose his Wayanad MP seat?
Under Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, “a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for no less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a period of six years since his release.”
The court order became a rallying point for the opposition leaders as two non-Congress chief ministers Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal and Jharkhand's Hemant Soren protested against the verdict.
Meenakshi Lekhi, New Delhi MP and Union Minister of State for External Affairs:
"In 2013, Rahul Gandhi tore the ordinance which sought to overturn the SC’s verdict to disqualify legislators convicted & sentenced to over two years in prison. Today, he is ordered 2 years of jail…You reap what you sow. Will Rahul Gandhi be disqualified as Member of Parliament?"
Amit Malviya, BJP IT cell chief:
Court convicts Rahul Gandhi for his casteist and defamatory comment, targeting a section of the society. He is flippant and dangerous, who has no compunction deriding India and Indians. He had recently pleaded for Europe and US intervention in India’s internal affairs… Shameful.
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