In a setback to former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, the Gujarat High Court on July 7 declined to stay his conviction in a criminal defamation case in which he was sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court.
The High Court noted that the Congress leader used Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name in his speech at a poll rally to “add sensation” and with an intention to “affect the result” of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
“The accused did not stop there but imputed that ‘saare choro ke naam Modi hi kyu hai (why do all thieves have the Modi surname in common)’. Thus, the present case would certainly fall within the category of seriousness of the offence,” the order said. The court also underlined that he faced as many as 10 criminal cases across the country, including one filed by the grandson of V.D. Savarkar, and held that “it is now the need of the hour to have purity in politics”.
