The Surat sessions court has rejected Rahul Gandhi’s appeal on Thursday. Rahul Gandhi had filed an appeal seeking stay and suspension of the lower court order which convicted him in the 2019 defamation case and sentenced him to two years jail. Following the rejection of the appeal, now Rahul Gandhi can move to the Gujarat High Court. Rahul Gandhi has the only option to move to the High Court.
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Earlier, the sessions court had reserved verdict to be pronounced on today. The sessions court heard both sides on April 13 and reserved the verdict for April 20. If the court today would have stayed or suspended conviction of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader could have been reinstated in Parliament.
It may be noted here that during Lok Sabha election in 2019, addressing a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar, Rahul Gandhi gave a statement about Modi surname during election campaign. BJP leader Purnesh Modi had filed a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi with Surat court.
During Rahul Gandhi’s last visit of Surat on April 3, Rahul Gandhi filed an appeal against his conviction and said he was treated harshly at the stage of determination of sentence and the maximum sentence has caused him irreparable loss.
Rahul Gandhi’s lawyers also filed two applications, one for a stay on the sentence (or bail till the disposal of his appeal) and another for a stay on conviction till the disposal of the appeal. During his visit a team of Gujarat Congress leaders including Gujarat Party President Jagdish Thakor, Amit Chavda, Arjun Modhwadia and Bharat Singh Solanki, was present at Surat.
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