Congressman Rahul Gandhi is waiting for a decision from a sessions court in Surat, Gujarat on Thursday. He’s asking for a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case from 2019. The conviction caused him to lose his job as a Member of Parliament. The case was about comments he made about the Modi surname. He was found guilty and given a two-year prison sentence by a metropolitan magistrate on March 23.
If the sessions court agrees to the stay, Gandhi could get his job back. On March 24, he lost his seat as an MP for Kerala’s Wayanad. Gandhi appealed the magistrate’s decision on April 3 and was given bail until the outcome of his plea.
Gandhi told the sessions court last Thursday that being disqualified would hurt him a lot. He says his remarks on the Modi surname were not defamatory and that people misunderstood him. Purnesh Modi, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), filed the complaint against Gandhi. He called Gandhi a serial offender and said his appeal was infantile arrogance.
Additional Sessions Judge RP Mogera is still thinking about Gandhi’s request for the stay. Gandhi said the trial court treated him badly and that they were influenced because he was an MP.
