From our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Former union law minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said: “As far as defamation is concerned, Rahul Gandhi is a habitual offender, repeatedly resorting to defamation.
At a Press conference in the party headquarters here, he welcomed the Gujarat High Court on Friday rejecting his appeal to suspend the conviction by a Surat sessions court in a defamation case related to his 2019 remark about the Modi surname. The HC upheld his sentence of two years, rejecting his petition and as such Rahul remains disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP and he cannot cotests the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Prasad was reacting on the High Court decision. He said Rahul is in the “chronic hbit” to abuse and defame as he is a serial offender in as many as 10 cases across the country.
“…We would like to ask Congress – why can’t you control Rahul Gandhi? Why can’t you train him to speak properly? He is your leader. Had he apologised in this matter, it would have ended…It has become a chronic habit of Rahul Gandhi to abuse, defame & almost showering the worst kind of abuses against eminent leaders and organisations,” Prasad said.
Welcoming the Gujarat HC’s dismissal of Gandhi’s plea, BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, who had filed the complaint against the Congress leader, called the verdict “Satyamev Jayate (truth will triumph)” in its real sense”.
“Everyone should accept the Court’s order,” said Modi, who had filed the complaint against Gandhi over his ‘Modi surname’ remark. “Rahul Gandhi had said insulting things about our surname,” he added. “He should think about it and not create such histories.”
Delivering its verdict on Friday, the Gujarat High Court stated that the sessions court order refusing to grant a stay on Rahul Gandhi’s conviction earlier is “just and legal”. Observing that such stays are an exception, the court said no injustice will be caused to Gandhi if the conviction is not stayed. It dismissed Gandhi’s plea, upholding the order of the lower court, describing it as “just, proper and legal”.
“There is one more option before us…the Supreme Court. Let us see. The Congress will seek that option too,” said Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal even as its legal luminary and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi also said the Supreme Court will be moved to quash the High Court ruling.
