New Delhi:The Congress on Thursday said the Surat Sessions court order on Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in the 2019 defamation case was "erroneous" and will be challenged in the Gujarat high court soon.
AICC spokesperson and senior Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “The Sessions court order is prima facie suspicious and has no legal basis. It is an erroneous order and will be challenged in the state high court in the near future.” According to Singhvi, the Sessions court order had several legal shortcomings which will be challenged in the high court.
“The Sessions court order has cited various previous orders of the higher courts in which the offence was of a serious nature. These references do not apply to Rahul’s case which is a defamation matter. It is like a comedy and we will cite this in the high court,” he said. The Congress spokesperson was reacting to the Surat Sessions court order on Thursday which rejected Rahul Gandhi’s appeal to quash his conviction and a two-year jail term that a trial court had awarded him on March 23.
The criminal defamation case relates to Rahul’s 2019 speech made in Karnataka’s Kolar where he said how come “all thieves had a Modi surname.” Petitioner Purnesh Modi, a BJP leader, had filed the case saying that Rahul had defamed the entire Modi community and later the BJP branded it as an anti-OBC remark.
Singhvi claimed the case against Rahul is to target the leader due to political reasons and the former MP had said nothing wrong. “Rahul Gandhi speaks in the people’s court and did not say anything wrong. This case is meant to target him, troll him, and block him from speaking in Parliament. It shows that the BJP is worried over the questions that Rahul is asking from the government and PM Modi,” he said.