‘Why can’t Congress control and train him?’: BJP welcomes Gujarat High Court verdict in Rahul Gandhi defamation case

New Delhi: The BJP on Friday welcomed the Gujarat High Court’s decision to dismiss Rahul Gandhi’s plea to stay his sentence in the Modi surname criminal defamation case, saying abusing and defaming others is an “old habit” of the Congress leader. . Addressing a press conference, senior BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress leader refused to apologize for his ‘Modi surname’ jibe and displayed “irresponsible arrogance”.

If he behaves like this and defames people and institutions, the law will catch him, he added. The law has caught up with him, he said. Prasad said that there are seven-eight defamation cases against the former Congress president. The BJP leader said that abusing and defaming eminent people and organizations has become an old habit of Gandhi. He said that he has also been accused of insulting great patriots like Veer Savarkar and Hindutva organization RSS.

It is his arrogance that he believes he is above the law as he is from the Gandhi family, Prasad said.

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“…we want to ask Congress – why can’t you control Rahul Gandhi? Why can’t you train him to speak properly? He is your leader. If he had apologized in this matter, It would have ended… Prasad sought to know from the Congress party, “It has become an old habit of Rahul Gandhi to abusing, defaming and hurling worst kind of abuses against eminent leaders and organizations.”

#Watch , Gujarat High Court verdict on defamation case against Rahul Gandhi. BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad says, “…we want to ask Congress – why can’t you control Rahul Gandhi? Why can’t you train him to speak properly? He is your leader. Has he done anything about it?” I apologised.” , pic.twitter.com/DQ8sVNqIum— ANI (@ANI) 7 July 2023

Gujarat HC dismisses Rahul Gandhi’s plea

Earlier in the day, the Gujarat High Court dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark. Dismissing the plea, Justice Hemant Prachchak noted that Gandhi was already facing 10 criminal cases across India, adding that the trial court’s order awarding Gandhi two years in prison for his comments ” was just, proper and legal”. , There is no reasonable ground to stay the sentence, the High Court said.

“He (Gandhi) was trying to stay conviction on absolutely non-existent grounds. It is a well-settled principle of law that stay of conviction is not a rule but an exception, to be resorted to only in rare cases Disqualification is not only limited to MP, MLA. Besides, there are 10 criminal cases pending against the applicant,” the HC said. It added, “Following this complaint, Veer Savarkar in Cambridge by grandson of Veer Savarkar Another complaint was filed in a Pune court against Gandhi for his defamatory statement. Another complaint against him was filed in the concerned court in Lucknow.”

In this background, the refusal to stay the conviction would not cause injustice to the applicant in any manner, the judge said. “The order passed by the Appellate Court is just, proper and legal, and does not call for any interference. However, the learned District Judge concerned is requested to decide the criminal appeal on its own merits and in accordance with law decide. As expeditiously as possible. “In view of the above, in view of the above, the present criminal revision application deserves to be dismissed and is accordingly dismissed,” the judge read out the order, noting that the stay of conviction at this stage There is no reasonable ground to impute. Justice Prachhak also directed the Surat district and sessions court to hear Gandhi’s appeal against the sentence “as soon as possible”.

Will challenge HC order in SC: Congress

After the verdict, the Congress party said that it would challenge the High Court’s decision in the Supreme Court. A stay on Gandhi’s conviction in the case would have paved the way for his reinstatement as a Member of Parliament. Unhappy with the High Court order, Congress Legislature Party leader in Gujarat Assembly Amit Chavda told reporters that the party would challenge the High Court order in the apex court.

A metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat on March 23 convicted the former Congress president under sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a 2019 case filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Gujarat. Sentenced to one year in prison. MLA Purnesh Modi. Following the verdict, Gandhi, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kerala’s Wayanad in 2019, was disqualified as a Member of Parliament (MP) under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.

Gandhi then challenged the order in a sessions court in Surat, which is still pending, along with an application seeking a stay on the sentence. On April 20, the sessions court, while granting him bail, refused to stay the sentence, following which he approached the High Court. BJP MLA and former minister in the Gujarat government Purnesh Modi questioned Gandhi’s ‘How is Modi the common surname of all thieves?’ Filed a criminal defamation suit against him. Remarks made during an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

During an earlier hearing in Justice Prachhak’s court on 29 April, Gandhi’s counsel had argued that the maximum sentence of two years for a bailable, non-cognisable offense would mean losing her Lok Sabha seat “permanently and irrevocably”. may be lost, which would have a “very serious additional irreversible consequence for the person and the constituency he represents”.