A Gujarat court on Thursday found Congress scion Rahul Gandhi guilty in the 2019 “Modi surname” defamation case and sentenced him to two years imprisonment–the maximum sentence possible sentence under section IPC sections 499 and 500, under which the Wayanad MP was convicted.
According to reports, a court in Gujarat’s Surat city, convicted Rahul Gandhi under IPC sections 499 and 500 in a criminal defamation case against him over his alleged “Modi surname” remark in 2019 and handed him a two-year sentence. However, Gandhi was later granted bail and his sentence was suspended for 30 days allow him to appeal the court’s judgment.
The Congress MP was present in the court when the verdict was announced in under IPC sections 499 and 500 of the IPC—which carries a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment.
Rahul Gandhi may lose his Parliament membership?
Rahul Gandhi’s conviction and two-year prison sentence handed by the Surat court may lead to the former Congress President to losing his seat in the Parliament, according to a previous Supreme Court judgement.
The apex court on July 10, 2013 in the Lily Thomas v. Union of India case (along with Lok Prahari v. Union of India), ruled that any ruled that any Member of Parliament (MP), Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) or Member of a Legislative Council (MLC), convicted of a crime and handed a minimum two-year imprisonment sentence, loses membership of the House with immediate effect.
The Supreme Court, in its landmark judgement, had reverted on its earlier stance wherein convicted members held on to their seats until they exhausted all judicial remedy in lower, state and the apex court.
A Supreme Court bench of Justice A. K. Patnaik and Justice S. J. Mukhopadhaya, also declared as unconstitutional, Section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act, which allowed elected representatives three months to appeal their conviction.
What’s the case?
BJP legislator and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed a complaint against the Wayanad MP for allegedly asking “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”, leading to an FIR against Gandhi under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 499 and 500 which carries a punishment with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both, are mentioned in the IPC.
As per the complaint, Purnesh Modi had alleged that Rahul Gandhi made the remark made at a rally at Kolar in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which defamed the entire Modi community.
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The final arguments in the case resumed in February 2023 after the Gujarat high court vacated the interim stay it had imposed on the proceedings in March 2022 on the complainant’s plea demanding Rahul Gandhi’s personal appearance in the court.
Gandhi’s lawyer defended that the proceeding was flawed from the beginning as the legal procedure under Section 202 of the CrPC was not followed and also argued that Narendra Modi should have been the complainant in the case as Purnesh Modi was not the target of the Congress leader’s speech.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Thursday put up posters outside the Surat court in support of Rahul Gandhi as he arrived for the proceedings in the defamation case.
The posters said “let’s go to Surat in support of democracy” along with pictures of Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev.
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